Silver Millennium Part 2: Years of Silver light
by Bruteaous
Summary: Finally,the time of the senshi!The fragile peace is shattered, but it will take a group of determined young guardians to reclaim it. Can they protect the queen? A H & M centered Silver Millennium story.
1. Gathering the Senshi

**Silver Millennium Part 2: Years of Silver Light**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters of Sailor moon, I simply own the storyline and characters which I have created.

**Stories of the Silver Millennium in order:**

**I. **Silver Millennium: Prologue

**II. **Silver Millennium Part 1: Dominion of Knights

**III. **Silver Millennium Part 2: Years of Silver Light

**IV. **Silver Millennium Part 3: The End of All Things

**Chapter 1: Gathering the Senshi**

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity's I's Reign 2478**_

_**The Crystal City, The Moon**_

_**Crystal Palace**_

_**Essential Briefing**_

Setsuna stood before her queen in her new uniform. It was different than anything she had been required to wear before, but then this was a new Millennia, one which would concentrate on the recent threat to their kingdom and she would be fighting along with them. She wore a bright white blouse from which a garnet bow was sown on proudly and a black skirt was added to complete the ensemble. Along with this new uniform came the garnet orb of reckoning, her father had left to her resting a top a long silver staff in the shape of a key which Serenity had given to her to wield in battle.

The unique key shape of the staff was due to the status it held, as a makeshift key to the gates of time for the time senshi's use and her use only. The queen looked upon her childhood friend with the love and the respect she offered to all whom she knew.

"Are you ready to complete this task, Setsuna?" Queen Serenity asked gazing down at Setsuna from her throne, with great care and worry echoing in her cobalt eyes.

"Of course my Queen, I have been more than adequately trained in these past few years and my abilities have increased tenfold. I truly believe that I am within all of my power to say that I can complete any task which you ask of me." Setsuna replied standing up straighter before her queen.

"It was not of your abilities of which I was speaking, Setsuna." Stated Serenity worriedly gazing upon her friend.

Setsuna bowed her head sheepishly and allowed her dark green bangs to shield her eyes from her friend's ever present concerned gaze.

"His death did take its toll on me, it is true…but I truly loved him and to know that his passing marked the ending of all of the old life so dear to me is an unbearable piece of knowledge. The knights of old are no more, the Royal stars will not rise up to save us now nor will the warriors of Galapagos. Everything has changed…I am the only one left. I am trying the best that I can, but my efforts are not enough. I promised that I would carry this weight upon my shoulders with courage and honor, to that end, I swear to you my friend that I shall serve you and your people with the kingdom as a whole's best interest at hand." Setsuna replied casting a determined resolve to her queen.

The queen studied the youngest monarch of Pluto silently. Then she stood from her throne and descended the steps leading up to it. Buried was the easy going childhood friend of old whom had always been at her side for every new adventure, but she was not gone.

Hope was ever present and although the fate of the Senshi of time was sealed in this millennium, it would not be for the next. Still, what a heavy burden Setsuna was so willing to carry in the name of queen and kingdom. Serenity walked up to her closest friend, her most loyal defender and enveloped her in a comforting hug.

"You know there is no one I would trust more with this mission." Serenity said pulling out of the comforting embrace, "But if you are still not ready, I will send one of my chamberlains to attend to the job."

"No I will do it, I will collect the Senshi." Setsuna stated firmly, shaking her head. "I will start with the Outers and then after they have received their training, I will embark with them to the inner planets to collect the Inner senshi. The Inners will then be brought to the palace upon the moon for training."

Then without another word, Setsuna departed her queen's company and left the throne chamber.

"Be careful, my friend." Serenity whispered to the lonely room, "In your loyalty to me you will make enemies of your closest friends, you will make friends of your most irritable adversaries. Be weary whom you trust."

Serenity then watched her friend leave and sighed sadly before returning to her throne.

_**

* * *

**__**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I 's Reign 2478**_

_**The Imperial City, Uranus**_

_**Castle Deagelle**_

_**Senshi Recruitment **_

Setsuna stood quietly on the landing bay for all those requested or otherwise whom were preparing to enter the Uranian castle. The time senshi had traveled alone so the Uranian guards had had no troubles in approving her entry.

The castle's large bronze gates began opening on its rusted hinges, being pulled imposingly upon by two large golden horses and several men suited in golden suits of armor. As soon as the gates were opened, two tall and lithe men dressed in navy blue cloaks and golden colored armor made of bronze walked up to Setsuna's side.

"We have been assigned by King Earnil III & his wife, Queen Eilinela, to escort you into the palace, my lady." One of the guards removed his horse hair crested golden helmet, and bowed his head to Setsuna.

Setsuna could not quite place it, but this young guard looked very familiar. He possessed dark blonde hair, the characteristic of every healthy Uranian, and teal eyes, the very trade mark of the royal family. Then convinced that she knew the young man's identity, Setsuna walked forward with a kind smile on her face and clasped the guard's hand affectionately in her own.

"You have grown a great deal, Prince Ethuil of Uranus, I almost did not recognize you and I doubt I would have done so had your eye not betrayed you to me." Setsuna said smiling at the young guard who was no longer the child she remembered, but clearly a man.

The young guard smiled in return at Setsuna and took her arm gently leading her into the richly decorated entry chamber of the Uranian stone palace. The young Uranian prince thought fondly of his last moments with the Plutonian princess, as her title had once proclaimed. It was long ago, when his father had ruled the planet Uranus, the good King Aegelle, as his subjects called him then. Prince Ethuil was only a small boy at the time, but he remembered clearly what was and what had been destroyed with the fall of the knighthood.

The young prince turned sheepishly to Setsuna and smiled apologetically at her.

"I am sorry for your loss." the prince murmured as Setsuna's original soft smile disappeared returning a frown to her beautiful features, "Nathaniel Diem was a fine prince and an even greater man, my family mourned his death."

Setsuna looked back up at the young guard before her and smiled sadly.

"Thank you for your kindness." Setsuna stated to him sincerely and then she turned her head and stared straight forward down the archway framed corridor which they were walking down.

Setsuna tried to take her mind off from the recent comment by gazing around at all of the architecture of the vast corridor. The high ceiling was carved with ancient designs in gold and marble, to bring the Uranian royal family good fortune and wealth. The walls were covered in curtains of rare and rich fabrics, sometimes woven into tapestries; scenes of ancient legend for the planet's glory days.

The stones of the floor seemed to be carved in marble of many different colors, each hand quarried with great care and craftsmanship. Setsuna remembered the corridor well, this was where she and King Aegelle's daughter would play games as children. Games much like tag, hide and go find, or duck on a rock which Princess Eilinela almost always won because she was faster.

The three of them soon reached the throne room. Then the second guard whom had been escorting Setsuna and the young prince of Uranus removed his helmet, letting the armored helm hang against his back from the leather strap tying it around his neck and pulled hard upon the wooden doors of the throne room, opening them with practiced effort. Then the guard stood at the door and ushered Setsuna and his prince through the door.

"Sister." Prince Ethuil greeted with added mirth stepping towards the elaborately carved throne where his sister, the queen of Uranus sat proudly. Then the young prince turned his head and bowed his head lightly to his sister's husband, "Earnil, I have brought you both a time honored visitor."

Setsuna, whom had stayed by the doors as a sign of respect for the family greeting, stepped forward in to the direct line of vision of the king and queen. The queen smiled in delight at seeing her childhood friend again while the king remained silently brooding in his seat over the new comer. The Uranian queen stood up from her throne and ran down so fast that Setsuna barely saw her move from her original spot, and stopped at Setsuna's side.

"The time has been long my friend." Queen Eilinela said smiling at Setsuna happily, teal eyes glistening. "Since I have seen you or anyone else from the old days."

"Yes it has been a long time." Setsuna said, stoic and not smiling for she was determined not to let the familiarity of this occasion destroy the purpose of why she had come to Uranus in the first place, "But this is not a social call, Eilinela,…I am here to collect Haruka."

The Uranian queen was no longer smiling, but gazing at Setsuna pleadingly to relinquish her quest to take her only daughter away from her. The king, however, was glaring at Setsuna with a look to kill. Prince Ethuil watched his brother-in-law wearily, ready to leap into the fray should the Uranian king chose to end this with violence.

"Must she go…she's still so young, Setsuna…she has not even come of age yet." Queen Eilinela pleaded, "Please Setsuna…by the Gods….what have you become? A ruthless servant whose only purpose is to rip children from their homes? A heartless thief? A roan of pain and sorrow?"

Setsuna looked away from her long ago childhood friend. Queen Eilinela took hold of Setsuna's shoulders and forced her to face her.

"Where is the childhood friend who played games with me in the corridors when we were young? Where is the noble woman who stood faithfully by my side while my father arranged my wedding? Where is the faithful servant who sent word to my fair love of my joyless marriage? Where is the loyal companion whom stood by my side as I comforted my father on his death bed? Where is the friend who comforted me when my young child came down with the fever and who tended to her until she became well again? Where is the friendly diplomat who helped my planet in its darkest hour, arranging a peace treaty with Neptune? Where is she now?" Queen Eilinela asked bitterly tears streaming down her cheeks, as she was unable to bare her friend's treachery.

Setsuna turned her face from the Uranian queen's torturous gaze and forced herself to hold back the tears which were beginning to form in her eyes. It was unfair that Setsuna was able to show so much compassion to her childhood friend in old days and now show her so little.

"She died along with the golden age of old we so cherished. All that remains of your friend now is a timeless shadow, one which will exist forever even until the ending of all worlds." Setsuna answered keeping her features set and determined, she then turned to Prince Ethuil and ordered, "Bring Haruka, for me."

The stunned Uranian prince obeyed and cast one last pained look at his sister before jogging at a steady pace towards the throne room doors, his bronze armor clattering with the heavy sound of metal against metal as he did so.

"No! Please, Ethuil don't!" Eilinela yelled as her brother turned towards the open doors, but Ethuil did not turn towards his sister's plea; he instead continued on a steady path towards his niece's chambers.

The king remained entirely silent throughout this whole struggle, not moving to comfort his wife nor to assist his brother-in-law. It was true the king only had one daughter and heir, but he did not consider her as such. Haruka, as she had been named, was born a girl when the king had wished for a boy and so she became a blemish on his family name. He had long been waiting for a chance to remedy this problem and erase the former child from his family so that they could conceive a new heir while disposing of the old one. A cryptic grin on his face as he awaited his daughter's arrival.

The young prince Ethuil soon returned carrying a sleeping child in his arms whom had obviously been taken from her bed, unwilling to face the day. She had short sandy blonde hair, the color of the likes of which belonged to all whom were born into her family, and its short locks were tussled from deep sleep.

Her skin was slightly tan from days spent running and playing on the sun kissed sands of her homeland. She was wrapped in a navy blue traveling cloak, which her uncle had removed from his own shoulders and wrapped around her own as preparation for the journey, which clearly showed her royal background in its rich gold embroidery.

Ethuil shifted the lithe child's weight in his arms and as he did so her navy cloak fell back to reveal the garments she was wearing. Haruka was wearing a long-sleeved navy shirt which was high collared in the style of noblemen. She had on a pair of trousers which matched her shirt, held up by a light black belt and framed by the black boots of a guard which came up to the base of her knees.

Setsuna did not like what she saw. From her appearance, the child seemed to have been raised as the boy and heir the king had always wanted, not as the princess she was. From her obvious appearance and height, Setsuna determined that this young girl was only about five years of age, if that. Such a young age to begin fighting for your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Ethuil shook the young child in his arms gently, trying to wake her without startling her. A soft groan was heard as the small child snuggled into the warm arms which held her.

"No, no whirlwind." Prince Ethuil shook his niece gently once more, smiling kindly at her antics, "You must wake."

The girl sighed and relented as two tired teal eyes the shape of almonds opened up to take in the world around them. The child winced as the hall's bright torches reached her still sleep filled eyes, temporarily blinding her, "Uncle? Mama?"

"Yes, Haruka we're here." Queen Eilinela said reassuringly her voice cracking, as she failed to keep her tears from falling as she realized that there was nothing she could do to keep her daughter home any longer. After all the order had come from Serenity herself, and Serenity's word was law.

Ethuil set the wakening girl in his arms on her feet while keeping his hand on her shoulder to steady her, Haruka's long cloak pooling upon the floor around her. Haruka looked at her family gathered around her. Her mother was crying tears she did not understand while her uncle stood silent, his eyes shut to close out the reality of what was going on.

Haruka's eyes then settled on her father where he was sitting a top a flight of stairs on his throne. He had a strange smile on his face which she had never seen before, and his emerald eyes carried a glint of light which did not make sense to her. She felt eyes on her and turned to see Setsuna smiling at her kindly. A look of bewilderment crossed Haruka's face as she turned to her mother.

"Mama, why are we in here?" Haruka questioned looking curiously at her mother. "Isn't it time for the morning meal? Shouldn't we be at breakfast?"

"Yes, of course." Queen Eilinela laughed nervously trying to put off her only child's departure as long as possible. "Breakfast! I almost forgot…we can't send you off hungry now can we?"

Queen Eilinela reached out for her child, to lead her away from the throne chamber, but her brother's hand on her arm stopped her. His teal gaze was soft and sorrowful, his face set firmly.

"Sister, you're going to have to let her go." Prince Ethuil whispered to his sister as her eyes once again filled with grief saddened tears and premature sobs wracked her frame.

"'Let me go'? Where am I going, Mama?" Haruka asked curiously looking from her uncle to her mother, but they remained silent and would not answer her. So Haruka walked up towards her father's throne, "Papa, do you know where they are taking me?"

The king visibly stiffened, but ignored his child's question. He instead gazed at Setsuna whom was hiding unshed tears in her eyes and looking at him angrily.

"So, Setsuna if you take my daughter from here, she would be gone for a long time would she not? Possibly forever, even?" The king questioned sternly, stroking his bearded chin slightly in thought.

"Yes, for many millennia to be exact." Setsuna answered calmly, turning away and pulling a plain garnet traveling cloak out of thin air and throwing it around her shoulders before turning back towards the king with an angry gaze, "At least until she comes of age, at which point she may be allowed to visit home again before returning to her majesty's service; of course there is a chance that she may never be allowed to return to you ever again."

A slight sob came from the Uranian queen as still more tears came down her cheeks at that answer. She called out softly to her child, "whirl wind-", but before she could finish her husband interrupted her.

"Excellent." King Earnil replied with a somewhat wolfish grin before turning to his daughter, "Haruka, how would you like to go on a trip? You will be traveling to the moon for complimentary training and then to other planets to meet the other princesses, if nothing else. It will be fun, like a vacation." the amused king fibbed, twisting the truth so that his child would think nothing of it.

Haruka nodded her head lightly up and down, happy at first that she finally was able to leave the castle and visit other planetary systems, but then weary of her father's will as he did not often treat her kindly. "Thank you, Papa. Should I retrieve my possessions?"

"No, you will not be needing them, any longer. You will simply take with you the cloak and garments which you are wearing at this moment, nothing more." The king answered. "This woman is Setsuna, a childhood friend of your mother's, she will be taking care of you throughout your journey."

Haruka did not trust her father, but she knew that if she questioned his orders her would become angry so she remained silent and agreed. Haruka gazed at this tall woman, whom she would eventually come to know in time, and took her hand when it was offered to her. Although she was not thrilled to go on this trip without her mother, Haruka did not think that any harm would come to her so she could not understand why her mother was sobbing and holding on to her uncle, whom also looked sad, for support.

Setsuna took hold of Haruka's hand gently and wiped two escaping tears briskly from her own eyes before tenderly leading her charge to the throne room doors. Queen Eilinela turned and strained to run out of her brother's firm embrace and towards her retreating child, but her brother's strong arms held steadfast and would not break their restraining hold on her.

"Setsuna! If you do this we will no longer be friends, no longer be allies, you will be dead to me do you hear me, dead to me!" Queen Eilinela screamed after Setsuna as her brother held her at bay, a haze of dutiful sorrow clouding his features..

Haruka turned her head in time to see her mother collapse in her uncle's arms, gigantic sobs wracking her slight form before the heavy doors of the throne room shut and she saw nothing more of her mother or her family.

_**

* * *

First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2478**_

_**Atlantis, Isles of Isabella, Neptune**_

_**Castle of Triton**_

_**Senshi Recruitment**_

"Setsuna?" Haruka asked walking beside the much taller senshi of Time, "We're not really just going on a trip, are we?"

Setsuna turned towards the child, surprised at the sudden question, as Haruka struggled to keep her balance as Setsuna's quick movement had caused her to lose her equilibrium for a moment.

Setsuna then turned her back to the child raising the hood on her garnet cloak.

"No." Setsuna replied calmly, but before Haruka could question her guardian further, the time guardian spoke again, "Put the hood of your cloak up, or they will recognize that you are not of their planet and strangers are not welcome in the outer realms."

"And what of you? Will you not put the hood of your cloak up?"

"No." Setsuna answered, this time her answer was spoken more cryptic than she would have liked. "They know me here."

Haruka did as she was told and put her navy hood up walking behind Pluto and trying to keep up with her patron's brisk pace and longer legs.

They were walking in the direction of a large stone building, a castle in fact. _It's amazing, no it's great, _thought Haruka in awe as they stood but mere meters from its walls. The castle was large with aqua capped towers and high outcrops bordering on the splashing shores of the sea.

"Be weary young Uranian." Setsuna warned, but with a light heart as warm memories of her childhood spent vacationing on Neptune with her family surfaced, "There is a legend here that those whom gaze too long at these walls will be captivated by the stones' mournful song. The royal family here take great interests in other cultures and tastes, especially towards that of Uranus. There is something unique which entrances the people here about Uranians." A far away distant look appeared in Setsuna's eyes, but disappeared as soon as she realized that Haruka had caught sight of it. "Just, be weary, do not become a tragedy in waiting ,as some of your ancestors have."

Haruka appeared puzzled. _Why would I do that?_, she wondered openly. Her mother had never spoken ill of the royal family of Neptune. She had in fact, never spoken of them to anyone in Haruka's presence.

The strange cool mists surrounding the castle engulfed them as they walked further, and both travelers seemed to find the mists calming and refreshing upon their tired brows. Setsuna then busied herself with talking with a guard upon arranging their entry while Haruka looked around. This was a foreign enviroment to her, she had come from a desert planet. There were no cooling mists there, no crashing waves, no vast seas; there was only sand and wind.

Then Haruka heard it, a mournful sound which seemed to grace her ears rather than assault them.

It was no doubt radiating from a string instrument. What could it be? A viola, possibly? Maybe a violin? Whatever it was the sound was beautiful and made Haruka feel as though she was flying among the clouds, or running through endless fields; no restraints.

"Do you hear that, Setsuna?" Haruka asked, wondering if her patron had heard that heavenly music.

"The loveable, damnable, yearning tune?" Setsuna asked turning towards Haruka with a grin which, her young Uranian charge had not yet seen on her features before.

"Um…Yes." Haruka answered deeply fearing her patron's response.

"Yes." Setsuna replied unsurprised, pointing to the wall before them, "It is coming from up there."

Then Setsuna turned towards an iron armored, blue cloaked guard and greeted him in Neptunian, the native language of the water planet. Haruka on the other hand wandered towards the wall's heights, where a figure shrouded in mists stood still upon its border. The music continued and heightened its notes, taking Haruka up to the heavens along with it, but before she could question anything more about the wonderful music Setsuna's hand landed on her shoulder, frightening the Uranian child out of her reverie.

"Did I frighten you?" Setsuna asked smiling apologetically as Haruka jumped slightly at her sudden arrival. "We are supposed to be heading into the castle now."

"No, not at all, but…." Haruka answered to Setsuna's previous question and then she turned back towards the wall to address the mysterious music maker, but the figure had vanished from her sight, "But…whom…?"

"'But who', what?" Setsuna asked studying her young charge well, and seeing no reason to be entirely alarmed only just a little curious.

"Nothing." Haruka turned her attention back to Setsuna and the guard whom was beginning to lead them through the numerous gates of the Neptunian castle.

Along with her post of Time Senshi came the powers of premonition, and Setsuna knew that this fateful sighting on the palace walls was no coincidence, for nothing which occurred in the time stream ever was.

Haruka gazed around the Neptunian royal castle's interior. The architecture here was unprecedented to anything the young Uranian had ever laid her eyes upon. According to what Pluto had told her after they had teleported there, the architecture of the water planets was very similar, but the Neptunian favored design was more inclined to art and music than the intellectual planet of Mercury.

There were small pools walled with polished stone surrounding the bottom of every pillar and statue, colorful fish swimming in the watery depths. Large sculpted images stared out from their vigil on the interlaced panels on white and blue marble carved underneath fine arches within the walls.

"Those are the ancestors of the current Neptunian royal family." Setsuna replied, remembering her visits to this very palace for her study of art on this planet as a child.

Setsuna smiled sadly as she stepped forward and gently touched the forehead of one of the statues, holding a long double edged sword stuck into the ground while one marble hand rested on its hand and a half hilt.

Haruka looked up at the marble figure, in wonder. The eloquent yet deadly features of the figure were carved delicately in stone along with the figure's clothing, the garb of a knight.

The figure had carved short hair, almost as short as Haruka's own on its head, and wore a engraved high collared tunic along with tall boots and practical breeches. The eyes of this seemingly stoic guardian of stone were surprisingly gentle and had a unique distinction, so unlike the cold cerulean marble the eyes were carved in.

"I knew this one." Setsuna said letting her hand trail along the once familiar features and down the strong nose before letting it drop entirely. "Entarais…she was a long ago friend of my family and was like an elder sibling to me. She was a mentor to my house and she taught my brother and I swordsmanship when we were young, although my father never knew that she was teaching me the ways of a knight, my mother encouraged the practice readily."

"Entarais? The Royal star and knight?" Haruka asked astonished starring again up at the stone faced figure, but with reverence this time.

Haruka had heard the tales of the two sisters in arms, of the Outer knights. Of the Neptunian Entarais and of her own Uranian Regelle. They were heroes before her time, whom she wished countless times she could have met.

Apparently, the Outer monarchs used to be very close friends and as a result they would often allow their children to grow up together, so Haruka knew that her mother and the queen of Neptune had been friends with the royal stars along with Setsuna's mother. Their friendship together was so strong that it was said of the three Outer princesses that their bond together was unbreakable and so on would carry on to their children. That had apparently changed since Haruka had never met the princess of Neptune nor Setsuna of Pluto since this very moment.

Her mother used to talk fondly of Regelle, never saying anything bad about her fellow royal and always when she spoke of the heroic knight a distant far away joyous look of remembrance would surface on the Uranian queen's face. A look which Haruka could never truly understand.

The two legends had quite an uplifting tale to their lives.

Regelle has always been seen in many ways as the unheralded guardian and protector of Uranus because of her Imperial lineage and militaristic reputation. Entarais was always the charming knight of legend, whom was mortal, but seen as an untamed and immortal spirit of sorts.

To all who knew the two royal stars, they were much more than the distant knights of far away tales, but gentle souls whom did not like to bring harm down upon innocents. It was ironic that two of the universe's most lethal knights could be so gentle and caring.

"Does your mother ever speak of them, Haruka?" Setsuna asked not tearing her gaze from the stoic stare of the statue.

"Not of Entarais at all, but she talks often of Regelle." Haruka answered gazing curiously up at the time senshi in question. "Why?"

Garnet eyes became soft and far away still gazing at the statue, but at its eyes this time.

"You learned never to ask for more, but always to strive for something better." Setsuna said to the stone statue as if expecting a response. "Now that you have left your mark on this world I wonder, will future generations ever follow that example? We could only hope for such things."

The most memorable events including the Royal stars of the Outer planets, was their deaths. Contrary to popular belief, Entarais did not die on the battlefield, but was tortured by the Dark Kingdom soldiers until she relinquished her life. The Uranian Regelle made a desperate confession to the soldier whom rescued her before her death entailing a message to her family, it was short and insignificant to others and as such, had gone unheralded by their historians who were responsible for recording such events; but it was reassurance to the Uranian royal family of the words Regelle would never say.

Haruka had never been told what the confession implied, but every time her mother told her the princess's story it brought sorrowful tears to the Uranian queen's eyes, tears much like she had shed when Haruka had left, though not as violent.

"Goodbye old friend. This time I depart your company forever." Setsuna said softly inclining her head to the stoic statue of Entarais and taking a few steps forward, before realizing that her young charge was not following her, "Come, Haruka. We need not tarry long here." Setsuna said motioning with her hand for Haruka to follow her.

Haruka did as she was told, nevertheless not before casting a fleeting glance at the statue…but, to her surprise, the statue had changed in facial expression. The stone figure was smirking at her. _Was it doing that when she had regarded it before?_ Haruka rubbed her eyes and then glanced back again, she was pretty sure it had not looked the same before. _Was it possible that I only saw a delusion? Was it possible for the statue to move without my noticing it? _

"Come now, Haruka, please time is of the essence here." Setsuna ordered in her normal tone as she continued in her journey down the hall.

Haruka turned to stare at Setsuna and then back to the statue, but the statue was no longer smirking and back into its ordinary position. Haruka's teal eyes were as big as saucers at that moment. Losing patience, Setsuna walked back and lightly took Haruka's arm and began to lead her down the long corridor still before them.

"But Setsuna, I saw…" Haruka tried to explain as she was gently pulled down the hall at a rather fast pace by her patron.

"No buts." Setsuna interrupted, "Let us just retrieve the senshi to be and go, we are on time restrictions."

* * *

The Neptunian Queen sat in the throne room of her palace, looking over some old documents concerning certain trade routes between Neptune and Mars. They were quite aged looking as if they had come from a long time ago, but that was not truly surprising as almost everything in the Moon Kingdom had its roots in ages long passed.

Her hair cascaded in aqua waves down to her shoulders and she bit her lip slightly as he review a particularly dusty piece of parchment. The years had changed her. In looks she was more refined, taller and more sedate. In her earlier years she had always rebelled against conformity and now, she smiled at the irony, she was the perfect picture of a Neptunian queen.

"My Lady." An navy blue haired servant dressed in Marine blue robes entered the chamber and bowed low to the queen.

"Yes, Lefnui?" The queen asked peering cerulean blue eyes up from her documents intently towards her servant.

"Many pardons my queen, but there are visitors outside the doors who wish to see you." The servant answered, not moving a muscle.

"Oh really, are they anyone I would know?" the queen asked smiling and standing from her position at the table while stepping away from the ancient documents.

"Yes my lady, A Setsuna of Pluto and the young princess of Uranus await your presence." the servant replied standing up from his bow.

The queen's gaze changed. A gaze which once would have excitedly erupted at the prospect of her friend coming to visit her, steeled. This was not a social call as would have been expected in the days of old, but an executive order from Serenity.

"Escort them in." the queen answered with a steely gaze. She knew this day would come, but she never dreamed that it would come so soon.

The servant opened the large doors to reveal two hooded and cloaked figures, one garbed in garnet the other in navy blue. Then the servant stepped aside and cleared his throat loudly.

"Presenting Setsuna of Pluto and Princess Haruka of Uranus." the servant announced as the two figures removed their hoods and entered the great black and blue decorated hall.

The chamber was made of stone and hued entirely out of marble. Resting in between slabs of cerulean and black marble were tall windows longer than two people stacked together and wider than a horse is long.

These windows were adorned with stained glass, each pixel portraying scenes of ancient Neptunian legend. Great sea serpents and magical creatures were engaged in colorful battles with knights and heroes of old.

Upon one particular window there was depicted a pixel of Gil, slaying the tyrant Amarth whom had terrorized the Northern islands of Neptune for one hundred years, or at least until he met the Neptunian warrior and fell to his blade.

"Neptunia, it has been a long while since the last time we've seen one another and you are looking well." Setsuna greeted bowing her head slightly to acknowledge the Neptunian monarch while smiling in recognition of her old friend.

The Neptunian queen studied her old childhood companion intently. As she did so images of memories long passed relived themselves in her mind. Of the times when Setsuna and her family would visit the Neptunian palace for vacations and leisure time. Of days when Setsuna and Neptunia would race to the Adrina islands and see whom could swim there the fastest, while Setsuna's elder brother Jade would be the judge of who actually won. Jade. That was an entirely different packet of memories to be left untouched.

Of times when the young Neptunia would sneak away to the docks of Atlantis to sail away with her cousin, Polcutais, on the fishing ships he worked on or of days when Setsuna would much rather have been reading a book in the Neptunian library, but was instead recruited to participate in one of the Neptunian princess's many adventures upon the seas of Neptune or of times when they would throw pebbles at the people passing by the castle gates and then hide in the trees.

But no matter how many happy memories Neptunia could conjure up of her childhood companion, she could not deny that her childhood friend had been exchanged for the woman who now stood before her. This servant of Serenity, no longer the proud and independent princess of long ago, presenting this outer exterior of seriousness and coldness underneath which was hidden the kindest of all souls ever born into the Silver Millennium; except for Queen Serenity's of course.

But by her experiences, Setsuna's gentle soul had been securely hidden, allowing her to fulfill her duties to the Lunarian crown without hassle. Neptunia wished to let it be known that she was not peaceably willing to give her daughter up into military service with the prospect of possibly never seeing her again, but the Neptunian queen also wished to preserve her friendship with the senshi of time; knowing full well that the Plutonian princess was making more enemies than friends with the assignment she had been given to fulfill. Still, motherhood had matured her senses and she did not know if she would be able to surrender her only daughter so lightly.

"Yes, it has been a long time, but then again you have always been good with timing, Setsuna." Neptunia replied. Deciding to get right to the main point without fail, Neptunia approached Setsuna and spoke gently, "I know why you have come here, Setsuna, and it is on no mere social ground that you and your young charge enter my castle without briefing us first. You're here for Michiru, are you not?"

Setsuna's lightheartedness diminished as she realized with grief that she would be forced to break the heart shattering news to the Neptunian queen, which she mournfully already expected. As strong as she had become over the past few years, Setsuna did not think she could bear to loose another one of her closest friends again. She had already lost the Uranian Queen Eilinela, whom had been once, one of her best friends and she could not bare to lose Neptunia. But Setsuna had willingly complied to take on this task for her queen with the knowledge that it might lead to her apparent loneliness. She knew what was to come and was ready for it.

"Queen Serenity has sent out the order for every decided princess of each planet's reigning monarchs to be gathered for the protection of her daughter, Serena. All those chosen must be escorted to their assigned training grounds and I have been sent to assure that the queen's orders are carried out." Setsuna answered, "I would have chosen otherwise, but your daughter has been one of those selected for the service of the Outer court. It is unfortunate that I must do this to you and I would never have planned it this way, but Michiru must come with us."

Neptunia nodded, her gaze becoming sad and her demeanor mournful. She had foreseen this, but even now, she was not ready for it.

"I have seen this moment unfold many times in my mirror. I would make a pact with you, but I cannot break the queen's trust, nor can I deny the urgency with which her orders are carried out, but I cannot approve of what you are doing, my friend." Neptunia said with a forlorn air, "As much as I respect and care for you, even now more than ever, I will not be able to bring myself to accept you with open arms at our next meeting."

Setsuna's expression fell, she had been expecting rejection, but not like this. She and Neptunia had been friends since birth. How could she so lightly allow this to happen without resistance. She was tempted to skip the planet of Neptune and move on to collect the other senshi, if only for the sake of preserving their friendship, but how could she double cross Serenity when she so believed in her?

Neptunia sighed sadly and gestured to her servant whom had been waiting by the doors silently since he had introduced the two new visitors, nodded his head in agreement, and disappeared around the corner on his way to the young princess of Neptune's room.

Haruka raised a golden eyebrow in question, but the Neptunian queen interrupted her with a gesture of her hand before she spoke.

"It is telepathic communication. The people of this planet, being of sound mind and self, are able to communicate their thoughts and feelings with others through this method." Neptunia answered.

She turned elegantly to face the young Uranian princess. She reached a smoothly contoured hand out and held the Uranian's chin, gently raising it so that she could look into the young girl's eyes.

"You have the features of your mother." Neptunia said smiling gently at the small girl whom reminded her of one of her dear old friends. The Neptunian queen removed her hand from underneath the Uranian's chin and playfully tousled the young girl's sandy hair eliciting a small smile from the little child. "Yes, you look in her likeness."

"You knew my mother?" Haruka asked, not entirely surprised that two Outer queens would have grown up together, but still curious at the notion.

"Yes, we were friends as children." The Neptunian queen began lightheartedly, but she was interrupted by a loud clearing of the throat as the servant returned with a small girl about the same height and age of Haruka with wavy aqua hair and the demur features of all of the women of her family.

"Pardon me, my queen, but I have retrieved the princess just as you had requested." the servant said gently guiding the child before him and bowing his head in respect.

"Leave us, Lefnui." the Neptunian queen ordered lightly.

"I live to serve, my lady." the servant said in a rush before he scurried out of the room so fast that Haruka wondered if he had originally come from her planet.

The small aqua haired girl stood quietly where she had been placed waiting for orders from her mother. She was dressed in a deep marine blue gown which , complimented both the deep cerulean of her eyes and the wavy aqua of her hair. Haruka looked at the princess of Neptune and was surprised to notice that the girl was gazing at her too and smiling tenderly.

She did not know why, but Haruka felt her cheeks burn with the simple glance those of kind eyes.

"Michiru." the queen of Neptune spoke raising her arm in a welcoming gesture, "Come here my girl."

Michiru complied as she walked towards her mother. As the Neptunian princess moved silently yet smoothly across the marble floor, Haruka could have sworn she was gliding instead of walking by the smoothness of her gait and the Uranian child had to rub her eyes to make sure that she was not imagining things.

"What is it mother? Have I done something wrong?" Michiru asked in a refined voice which diminished all of the tones taken by other nobility to Haruka's ears as she longed to hear the smooth voice speak once more.

"No, my dear." the Neptunian queen gazed down upon her daughter and smiled a sad smile as she embraced her child in a warm hug, "But the day we have prepared for has come. You must leave us now and depart for Pluto for your training."

The tiny child embraced her mother sadly as silver tears fell down her cheeks, but her voice never wavered in its smoothness, "Will I ever return home mother?"

"I do not know, Michiru, but always remember that where ever you are; this family and the spirit of Neptune will go with you and protect you from harms way." The queen said taking a steadying sigh as she touched a pendant which Haruka noticed for the first time hanging on a silver chain around the Neptunian princess's neck. "And when you are ready and you have mastered your training, I will send you the Aqua Mirror. Treat the mirror well and it shall return the favor."

The pendant was silver with a medium sized aqua marine stone in its center, glowing by the light brought in by the stained windows. It appeared to be newly made, but Haruka knew such a pendant must be a family heirloom, for the inscriptions upon the outside band of the pendant were written in an ancient form of script which Haruka had noticed engraved upon the base of some of the older statues in the corridors.

"Go and serve our queen, but never forget where you come from and where your heritage lies. You are the daughter of a royal knight and also of the queen of Neptune and upon your shoulders rests the fate of our planet. My dear child, you resemble so the knight from which you are descended and I tell you now that no knight could have been so enlightened in honor as to have you for a daughter. No matter where you travel, you will always have a family to come home to." the Queen said embracing her child tightly for one last time before rising and stepping away from her only daughter.

The young Neptunian princess quickly banished her last tears and stood before Setsuna who was gazing upon the sad exchange feeling guilty for tearing Neptunia away from her only child.

"I am ready to serve the queen." Michiru said softly as her mother gazed at her with a mixture of both pride and grief while Setsuna looked down at the little girl who was so small and yet so very strong for her age, to knowingly take on such a task as this.

"Michiru, it is time." The Neptunian queen said nudging her daughter forward gently.

Michiru nodded as she gently grasped the hand Setsuna offered her. Setsuna then reached out and took Haruka's hand and led her two charges to the doors of the throne room. Once there, Setsuna stopped and turned, looking her childhood friend in the eye. The queen of Neptune remained entirely silent as she watched her only daughter be lead away, the pained expression on her face being her only show of emotion.

"Goodbye, my friend." Setsuna whispered softly as she let one lonely and anguished silver tear stream down her cheek, before she turned and led the two children out of the castle and off from Neptune forever.

**Author's Note: **Thank you all for reading my story, I hope you enjoy it. R&R!


	2. Trials & Separation

**Chapter 2: Trials & Separation**

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2478**_

_**Estoduin, Capital city of Pluto**_

_**Athena Castle, the Time Senshi's Permanent Residence **_

_**Senshi Training**_

The night was cold and frost covered the land as subzero temperatures engulfed it. Pluto, by its position as the last of the Outer planets, had naturally a very cold climate and the temperatures during the day were barely above freezing while the temperatures at night time were so cold they were almost unbearable. No snow fell, for the still more frigid winter months were not upon them.

The season was instead, spring and at a mere few degrees above zero, it was one of Pluto's warmest springs yet. The surface of Pluto was windswept and barren while the planet's intense gravity pressed hard priorities upon all who tread upon its roads.

The planet's gravity, depending on where you traveled, was at least anywhere from ten to one hundred times that of any other planet in the galaxy. There was no ice as the red seas of Pluto were prone to it, but only frequent frost which grazed over the land at almost every hour as time passed slowly by.

Pluto was quite unique for how its day and year system conformed to the time stream as oppose to how those of other planets might. The time planet's years are equivalent to precisely one earth day, and time passes slowly there, for there is no need to rush in such a place. Pluto's people live lives of longevity and prosperity, but they are somewhat lonely for they tend to live their lives in solitude and not by their own choice, but by a condemnation by fate alone. It truly took an adamant observer to realize the Plutonian population for what they truly are: timeless.

Three figures marched through the still cold wrapped securely in their traveling cloaks. Michiru shivered lightly as she clutched her heavy marine blue traveling cloak tightly around her body. She had never experienced weather this extreme on Neptune. Not even in the northern part of Neptune where the sea drowns all land and every building is either situated above water or beneath the ice caped deep waves were the temperatures this drastic.

Michiru's skin began to turn a light shade of blue as a short gust of breeze hit her. Being an inhabitant of one of the water planets who was traveling in a frigid climate ensured you one thing: that you would freeze to death faster than your companions.

Sensing this, Pluto fell behind a little to walk beside Michiru who was now turning a shade of blue befitting her hair. Setsuna reached her had out from the comfort of her warm cloak and felt the Neptunian princess's forehead. It was warmer than should be allowed for a Neptunian, but not warm enough to give cause for alarm.

Although the Neptunian princess did not have a fever yet, Setsuna guessed that if she spent less than five minutes more in the cold and froze into another shade of blue, that she soon would have one. So Setsuna removed her garnet cloak which had been specially made to face the cold temperatures of her native planet and wrapped it around Michiru's shoulders tightly.

"Come, the faster we move the faster you will regain your warmth back." Setsuna replied as she stepped away from the Neptunian princess who quickened her stride considerably to keep up with her patron.

Haruka was leading the group. Setsuna found this surprising, for Uranus is a planet which sports a scolding desert climate, but the Uranian princess seemed undaunted by the cold as she took step after step forward on the path to Athena Castle.

Haruka looked back from her post a few meters ahead of Michiru and Setsuna and watched as Setsuna walked from the Neptunian princess's side and up to not a few inches behind her not wearing her traveling cloak, but her sailor uniform instead. Haruka's eyes went as wide as saucers at this sight. Had Setsuna gone mad? It was cold enough here to kill most Uranians in minutes and yet her patron was walking out here in nothing but her sailor uniform.

"I am quite used to the cold temperatures and so they no longer bother me, please remember I grew up on this planet." Setsuna answered Haruka's mental question as she walked past her, "Quickly now, we must make haste. Athena Castle is but a few miles ahead of us. Do not loose face because of the cold, press on and ignore it instead."

Easier said than accomplished. The two princesses of the twin planets stopped and exchanged glances before then hurrying off after Setsuna whom was now traveling a fair distance ahead of them.

Half of an hour later the three weary travelers arrived at jagged castle gates. The iron reinforced stone walls were so cold that if one touched its surface without gloves, one's hand would freeze off in a matter of seconds before being removed from the icy textured surface.

The Jagged castle gates opened slowly and soundlessly upon their hinges. As the gates opened, a great castle of crystal and marble met the eyes of the two young princesses and their patron. The castle's architecture was such that it sent a shiver of awe up the spine of an unsuspecting traveler, but in the same moment, sent a flash of fear through the travelers' hearts with the impression that this was a cold and unforgiving place they had stumbled upon.

The two children followed closely behind Setsuna as she walked through the gates and stood as if searching for something or someone. When finally, her eyes set on a stoic figure clad in a richly embroidered Saturnarian style amethyst cloak embossed with silver thread, the head hooded in garnet and the face shielded by a black scarf. Marian leather boots came up to the stranger's knees while his lower half was clad in the green trousers worn by Jupiterean bowmen and the orange high collared tunic of the Venian swordsmen completed the odd ensemble, covering its torso shrouded by its amethyst cloak. A simple saber stuck out from the stranger's black belt from which it hung, the sword of a Venian duelist.

The two children cast weary glances toward one another. Whoever this masked stranger was, they hoped that they would not have to endure his company for very long.

"Stay here." Setsuna said to the children as she walked away from them towards the cloaked figure. The figure pushed itself off from the wall from which it had been leaning and acknowledged Setsuna with a nod of its head as she approached. Setsuna came to stand proudly before the stranger just as rivals stand before one another as equals not inferiors. The two sized each other up for a long moment before the silence was broken.

"How long will you disguise yourself from me, Jade?" Setsuna asked raising an elegant eyebrow as her garnet eyes met her brother's deep brown ones.

"I cannot fool you can I?" Jade asked removing his black scarf and garnet hood revealing the childish grin Setsuna had loved so much as a child.

It was surprising that although the times had changed greatly, Jade the Plutonian prince, had changed little. He, in appearance, was still the young and vigorous prince he had always while his spirit had not lost its zeal for adventure and life.

"I heard of Nathaniel's death…I mourned him. I had tried to get in touch with you, but you had left the palace and Serenity said that you had volunteered to help her reform what had happened into a new and better system to help protect the kingdom. You've really changed, I mean look at you. You've grown up." Jade said sheepishly trying to erase the guilt he felt for not being at his sister's side when she had needed him the most.

"That is what happens after twenty years." Setsuna said through a slightly bitter smile. "But that is not why I called you home. Serenity has a job for you. She requests that you help me train the two senshi of the Outer courts, since you have so much battle experience in the old ways." Setsuna then made a gesture to the two children whom stood in the distance watching them speak.

"But they're so young." Jade said looking at them, "Each one no older than six summers old. Setsuna, they are only children, leave off the training for a few years and allow them to enjoy their childhood. After all you only live once."

Setsuna nodded at the familiar statement her brother used to use so often, "But the kingdom is defenseless without the knights. The age of old when peace was attainable through soldiers of age and refinement is over. We live in a time when all that we are depends on the new generation and their ability to protect and defend. I am afraid whether we agree or not, we have no other choice but to train them."

"Yes." Jade agreed softly, "Which one will I be training?"

"Michiru, the Neptunian princess." Setsuna answered, "We will stay here tonight, then tomorrow morning you will take Michiru with you when you depart for Saturn. She will then stay with you at your home with your wife and children. Besides, maybe with another presence in the house your wife may be on speaking terms with you again."

"I doubt it. Ever since I left for Jupiter she's been really sore with me." Jade said rubbing the back of his dark haired head with one of his hands.

"Jade, maybe she was angry with you for leaving her for an exploration adventure on another planet while she remained six months pregnant at home with your son. I would say that definitely deserves a bit of vengeance on her behalf." Setsuna laughed softly at the bemused child like grin that spread over her brother's face as his eye brows furrowed in confusion.

Then a grin full of childlike hope spread across Jade's face as he got down on his knees and waved his hands up in the air.

"I bet, if I ask really nicely and bring her back a big fish for dinner she will have mercy on me." Jade said his face full of child-like hope as he stood up from his kneeling position on the ground. "How could she refuse that?"

"Your poor wife. I just do not know how your wife cannot refuse to punch you right in the nose. You act more childish than your own children and Michael is only three while Jiaston is still an infant." Setsuna smiled at the grin that earned her as her brother leaned against the stone of the castle.

"What do you think they are saying to one another?" Haruka asked watching as the oddly dressed stranger knelt on the ground and raised his hands to the sky.

"Maybe he is praying." Michiru offered with the raising of one perfectly shaped aqua eyebrow.

"Looks like he is begging. I bet he is begging Setsuna not to murder him for trespassing." Haruka said smiling slightly, leaning back to look up at the purplish sky.

"What is your name?" Michiru asked softly.

Haruka looked over at Michiru questioningly, surprised by the unexpected question. The aqua haired beauty was looking at her tenderly, patiently awaiting the answer to her question.

"Haruka, princess of Uranus. I do not yet know your name either, although I am pretty sure I heard the Queen of Neptune refer to you as Michiru." Haruka said starring down at her shorter friend.

"My name is Michiru, yes. What is the meaning of your name?" Michiru asked curiously.

"What?" Haruka asked surprised.

"My mother says that all words in the Uranian language mean something, names included. Your name, what does it mean?" Michiru explained and repeated patiently.

"Whirlwind." Haruka whispered softly, so softly that she had thought Michiru had missed it, but the Neptunian princess had not missed the meaning and smiled.

"That name seems fitting for a princess of the windy Uranian landscape." Michiru replied.

Haruka nodded her head and turned her attention back to where Setsuna was speaking with the stranger. Michiru kept her gaze on Haruka. There was something in her being that urged her to strive to understand the Uranian princess better. She truly was a curiosity, a princess whom dressed like a prince and on first impression, whom Michiru had mistaken for a prince. The proud features, the wind swept blond hair, the respectable teal eye, they were all features that the Neptunian queen had told Michiru outlined the Tenoh house.

'They were a proud line,' Michiru's mother had told her, 'One of the two ruling houses of Uranus and the strongest willed of the two. Regelle was of this house and her descendants are forever held to her bloodline and its legacy. Be respectable towards them, Michiru, for they are not the cold hearted warriors which our diplomats have made them out to be, but the cultured descendants of a warrior nation.'

But it was not just the looks or reputation that made Michiru wish to understand Haruka better. There was a uniqueness to the Uranian child which Michiru had never seen in anyone else before and she was determined to find out what this was and why it effected her so.

"They're coming back." Haruka's voice broke Michiru out of her revere.

Indeed, the stranger and Setsuna were walking towards them. Jade walked ahead of Setsuna and stopped in front of Michiru who starred up at him, bewildered. Haruka scowled and reached out for Michiru's hand, pulling her back from the scary stranger.

"No need to fear, little one." Jade said smiling as he ruffled the Uranian child's short hair. "I will not harm her. Your patron has ordered that I stay the night here to get to know the two of your better as well."

Haruka scowled more and was about to protest when Setsuna cleared her throat loudly and spoke.

"This is my brother Prince Jade of Pluto." Setsuna introduced. "And he will be training you, Michiru. You will both stay the night here and then in the morning Michiru and Jade will leave for Saturn."

"So soon?" Michiru whispered softly to herself as she rested her chin on her hand idly in thought.

"Wait, if Michiru is to be training under the prince then under whom shall I be training?" Haruka asked gazing up at Jade, "Will I be training under your too?"

"No, I am afraid not." Setsuna answered, "You will stay here and train with me."

Haruka nodded and then looked over at the Neptunian princess who was still deep in thought. She had only just met the Neptunian princess and yet she was sure there was something about her that Haruka could not simply grasp and understand fully just in the meeting. She had only known her companion for not much less a day and already she felt somehow enlightened by her new friend. There was something about her time spent with Michiru, it just felt…natural to be in her presence.

At that moment Michiru was drawn out of her revere by a strange and distressed feeling surfacing from the back of her mind that she had never felt before. She looked up into two very worried and grieved teal eyes. A look of concern crossed her features as she regarded her blonde companion.

Haruka appeared distressed about something, so greatly so that it crossed her features and shown on her face. What could it be? Then Michiru knew and reached for the Uranian child's hand and held it gently in comforting understanding. Haruka was afraid of being left all alone. With all of her family ties severed until she came of age, Haruka would be pretty much on her own and without the Michiru's companionship, she would feel as if she had been left truly alone.

Michiru smiled and held Haruka's hand up to their face level and then gazed reassuringly into frightened teal eyes.

"Do not worry I can always find you, I am always with you." Michiru whispered so that only the Uranian's ears could hear.

Jade watched this parting exchange between the two companions and then gazed back at his sister to gauge her reaction. She was to one side slightly and watching the two of them with sad eyes. To one who knows the future, fate is not kind nor subtle in its advances and it possesses cruelty enough to impress upon one their own destiny with no rhythm or warning.

"Setsuna, is it in a child's best interest to be severed from all whom they know and love at such a young age? Think of the children, is this what they deserve?" Jade asked his sister in a voice no louder than an embellished whisper.

"No, but it is what they will need to survive in these times." Setsuna answered, "Our future, my brother, rests on the senshis' shoulders. If we allow they to return to their childhood now, then the kingdom will be parted forever. We cannot afford to do that to all the innocent people of this galaxy whom are unable to fight for themselves and relay on the kingdom for their protection. They are our last hope. We lost the knights to the Dark Kingdom." Setsuna said as one silver tear slid down her cheek at the memory before she wiped it away, "Let us not lose them too."

Jade nodded his head in determined agreement and closed his eyes while leaning his head back, allowing the cold evening air bring peace to his throbbing head. This was to be a long ordeal and he would have to remain sturdy and strong to persist through it alive. He brought his head back down and his gaze fell upon the senshi potential he would be training.

He could see that she was a gentle soul and probably did not enjoy bringing harm to others. Unfortunately her kindness and sincerity would have to be the first things compromised in the line of combat if she was going to survive life on the battlefield. But there was great strength in the delicate child he could see it already and if anyone could make a difference as a warrior of the Outer court, Jade was convinced it would be her. He closed his eyes once more, this was to be a long night.

_**Please R & R!**_


	3. Plutonian Nights

**Chapter 3: Plutonian Nights**

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2478**_

_**Estoduin, Capital city of Pluto**_

_**Athena Castle, the Time Senshi's Permanent Residence**_

_**The last night of Idle Dreaming**_

Haruka tossed and turned in her bed. It was well past midnight and yet she could still not find sleep. It was a hot night in contrast to the frigid temperatures of the previous day. That was what made Pluto's climate unique, it had no set rhyme or rhythm to how its temperatures fluctuated. One instant it could be scorching hot, much like a desert, while the next moment it would be freezing cold with an icicle forming on the tip of one's nose.

Haruka had thrown every blanket and sheet off from the bed as a result of the heat and yet her forehead and tanned skin shone with a thin layer a sweat which caused her bangs to stick to her head. The Uranian princess was not accustom to such heat in the evenings, for although the daily temperatures on Uranus can feel like fire on your skin, the nights are cool and refreshing.

Convinced for the last time that she would be unable to find sleep in the humid night, Haruka sat up and wiped the sweat from her brow with a corner of her cloak which had been laying idle on a richly carved wooden chair next to her bedside sighing in contentment as she did so. Although calm, Haruka had not been able, for the better part of the night, to suppress a feeling of sorrow and panic which emanated from the far reaches of her mind.

Suddenly Haruka heard it. It was music, faint in its volume and persistent in its echoing. It was string music, similar, as Haruka recalled, to the music she had heard on the castle steps on Neptune. It was beautiful, complex in dynamics and playing and yet simple and rich in style and sound. The music then waned and began to fade.

Determined not figure out the source of this heavenly solo, Haruka stood up and quickly put on some black trousers and her boots before grabbing her cloak and hastily running out the door.

What is that? Haruka thought, And why does it affect me so? The music seemed to bring comfort to Haruka, even in her darkest waking moments the music seemed to soothe her soul and bring peace to her being.

Haruka listened carefully and continued running briskly down the hall which the music sounded strongest in. She soon came to the end of the corridor which led to the courtyard and the gardens. She walked down the stone paths of the gardens, the flat stones feeling uncomfortably warm on her bare feet.

Wide assortments of flowers graced her presence on either sides of the walking path in every shade of every color of the spectrum. The long drawn out notes of the music blended nicely with the grace and elegance with which the hands which had planted this garden had so worked to achieve. The dynamic contrast of the string instrument's harmony seemed to bring out the full beauty of the color of every flower, from warm colors to cool in perfect symmetry.

Haruka then looked up and in the center of a plaza of various marble walking stones laid into the soil, in front of a huge stone fountain stood the Neptunian princess in all of her glory framed by the soft moonlight as a violin, brought to life by careful and skilled fingers; sang with the sweet voice of pure human emotion at its heart. With her eyes closed, the elegant violinist's hands zipped into their positions with practiced ease while one hand wielded a finely tuned bow with refined accuracy.

The song was sorrowful and hopeful, and from its depths there came the cry of the heart of a dreamer trying to fly without wings, or swim without fins. The music touched on every human emotion : love, hate, envy, pride, fear, and most of all, sorrow. Michiru's fingers moved into their final position as the bow sang its last over the strings as it was brought to a place of rest at her side with the ending of the final note.

Then as if called to do so, Michiru turned and smiled down upon her blond partner who had a look of awe upon her features as the light of the stars played in the teal depths of her eyes. Then Haruka knew, she knew what it was that had made the violinist seem so unique and so unattainable at the same time in their first meeting.

As the moonlight illuminated silky aqua tresses, the pale almost porcelain like skin of the Neptunian princess seemed to shine as a graceful happy smile lit up her face. The eyes that were as blue as the ocean's greatest depths shone with happiness and adoration as the light of the stars danced there. To Haruka, Michiru was beauty beyond compare possessing a kind soul underneath the stunning ensemble to compliment all else.

Michiru stepped gracefully down from her perch and landed before her Uranian companion. Michiru smiled tenderly and gazed into the dazed eyes of her friend.

"Did I disturb your sleep?" Michiru asked raising one perfectly contoured eyebrow in question.

"No." Haruka managed to answer as her ability to speak returned to her, although her voice still sounded foreign to her own ears. "The night is too warm for any sort of peaceful slumber. Besides, the music was refreshing."

"I was not speaking on behalf of the music." Michiru answered lifting one of her hands and gently tapping the side of Haruka's left temple. "I have been feeling distressed and lonely for most of the evening and if it bothered you then I am very sorry."

Haruka remained silent and resigned her eyes to searching the stars instead of the pair of opposite cerulean eyes which were searching hers.

"Why will you not speak of the emotions which you foster in your heart?" Michiru asked.

"I am not an emotional type of person. Many have assumed it is because I am heartless, but I still retain the heart and the soul from which all emotions come." Haruka answered shyly as she brought her gaze down to meet that of her companion's.

"Emotions are meant to be shared with those whom you love." Michiru replied waiting patiently for Haruka to speak.

But she did not respond. Instead, the young Uranian princess simply stared down at her companion with a very carefully practiced neutral expression which Haruka often used while in her father's presence to shield her emotions from him.

"Why do you hold me at bay?" Michiru asked serious at first and then bemused soon afterward, "Why? Is it a crime to wish to help those whom you care for."

Haruka's facial expression did not change, but in those teal eyes which Michiru gazed into so equally something changed. Haruka gazed upon Michiru and then turned away sheepishly before facing her beautiful companion with a look showing serious determination, surprise, adoration, and could it be…sorrow?

"It is only…" Haruka stammered uneasily as she gazed intently at her companion whom was patiently awaiting her reply, "When I open up to those I care for, I always tend to lose them. First my mother and uncle, whom I have been able to speak with freely about anything I was feeling or dreaming and now…and now you. What if my emotions lay the foundation for my losing you?"

Michiru's features chastened, feeling for Haruka's plight softened her.

"Haruka-" Michiru tried to reach out to the Uranian whom seemed so far away from her at that moment.

"No it is better that way…it really is." Haruka answered turning her back to Michiru, her voice returning to its even tone.

Michiru was about to speak and reached out to touch Haruka's shoulder, but Haruka spoke first.

"It is late and both of us can expect strenuous days tomorrow. Let us rest. Good night Michiru." Haruka said with a voice drenched in impassive coolness without turning to face her companion.

Before Michiru even had time to formulate a response, Haruka had run off down the corridors, back in the way which she had come without another word in her companion's direction.

Michiru stood where she was as a silver tear rolled off from her cheek and hit one of the garden stones, "Goodnight Haruka." she whispered, feeling for the first time in her life, truly alone.

Haruka continued running, where her destination was she knew not, she only knew that she had to try with all of her strength to outrun this terrible feeling that was pulsing uncomfortly in her heart. It was the sorrow of loss and it was not new to the heart of the young Uranian. She had in fact spent the earlier part of the night, laying in her listening to the echoing grieving screams and sobs her mother cried as she was led out of the doors of the throne hall on Uranus and the comforting words of her uncle as the Uranian queen collapsed into his arms, weeping hysterically while screaming in vain for her only child to return to her.

When Haruka left she did not understand that she would never truly return to her home and now that the finality of the truth and aim for her journey passed into reason that she could understand, the stealthy reality of her destiny hit her like a swift kick in the stomach.

Haruka had always felt at home running through that sandy hills and valleys of her home planet, racing the wind to her limits, but all her running did now was bring her pain and sorrows ever closer to her. She continued to run ignoring the all to rare tears blurring her vision and the nerves making her feet feel heavy while her knees suffered from weakness of the moment.

Haruka ran faster now, trying so hard in vain to run herself back into the comfort she had known only a day or so ago, but to no avail. She stopped and rested her weight on her arms resting on her knees. Glistening with sweat in the cool night, Haruka sank down to her knees on the ground her, limbs numb from cold and the cooling sweat upon her skin.

How could she have wandered into this way of life so blindly? How could fate have been so cruel as to have lowered her to spend the rest of her life as the solitary soldier of Uranus? Why her? Why not instead one of the lower princesses of the Uranian court, surely there was not much difference between the Uranian royal children, so why then had fate condemned her as its successor?

"You should not mourn for fate's choices, for they unwillingly make us who we are destined to become in our lives." Haruka heard a voice say to her from the darkness of the corridor before her.

"Who is there!" Haruka yelled into the silence which had settled around her.

Setsuna then stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight shinning through the iron grading of the windows.

"How did you ever manage to call yourself my mother's friend!" Haruka yelled with a voice filled with bitterness while trying to catch her breath, standing up on shaking legs.

Setsuna's expression saddened greatly, "We were friends…in much less troubled days."

"Why then! In the name of all of the Gods, how could you have stood as surly as I am standing now in front of my mother and openly betrayed her trust in you? How!" Haruka asked bitterly the tears stopping and giving way to the hatred which was welling in her heart.

"It is not that simple to explain, Haruka." Setsuna replied. "I was once as you are now, noble, just in what I knew to be right, and young; but times have changed and with them so have I changed. Your mother and I were the best of friends in childhood and even when you were born I stood at her side as your father went off on some foreign battlefield, not willing to witness the birth of a daughter instead of a progeny son. I watched you grow up strong and free as one of your trusted godmothers until I was summoned to Serenity's side in confidence. Then everything changed.

"I was given the responsibility of protecting and upholding the kingdom while putting all of the wishes and wills of my previous life behind, knowing that I would never be able to return. That I would forever be the lonely soldier of my planet with no distinct choice on how I wish to live my life. True to my word, I would never break my vow to serve Serenity, but I can not deny that my heart yearns for a peaceful life. One such as you have lived in until only recently."

Setsuna swallowed hard as the cascade of images from her past flooded into her memory. Of her early days when she was so young that only scarce words could form from her mouth during the times when she would run to the gardens where Entarais would be schooling her brother in logic and rhetoric while her parents sat one of the garden gazebos drinking spicy Plutonian tea. Her father watching her brother's schooling with pride while Setsuna's mother tended to the roses around the Gazebo with tender hands.

Setsuna would run up the stone walk way crying out for Entarais to play a game with her, interrupting her brother's lessons, but receiving caring attention from the elder Neptunian knight nonetheless.

Or of later times when Setsuna would walk through moonlit arches and wooded paths of Saturn with the boy she would grow in time to love. Of Nathaniel's gentle smile and always kind words spoken with her. Of the most joyous day of her life when she married Nathaniel in the royal chapel on the moon, their bond sealed by Serenity herself. Then of that torturous day when Setsuna was brought news of her young husband's demise on the battlements of Jupiter. The final blow had been dealt and cemented her fate as the Senshi of time. This was the path of events which had led her to this wretched moment.

"It is a shame that I was able to bestow such genuine friendship upon your mother for so long a period of time than I was allowed to spend with you, but I suspect that it is better that way, as if we had been friends previous to this you would be feeling a stronger sense of betrayal in your heart than you are experiencing right now." Setsuna said feeling somewhat sympathetic to the turbulent emotions of her young charge, but desperately hoping for her to understand. "Believe in me. I know this must sound redundant and unbelievable to you, but I understand the pain and loneliness you are feeling. I once and still do sometimes feel this way, but it is in me that you shall find both a teacher and a most trusted friend. I promise that from this day forward you shall know what it means to have a friend who will forever remain by your side, but in order for this to happen you must trust in me."

Haruka looked into eyes that seemed as timeless as the stars themselves and hesitantly made her decision, still somewhat incredulous in her choice. She was still uncertain, but willing to learn what Setsuna had to offer her. She felt desperate for a friend's comfort, for she did not think that she could handle being alone anymore.

"I…I will trust you."

**Author's note:** I truly hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter. I was a pleasure to write. R&R!


	4. Departure & Unbreakable Bonds

**Chapter 4: Departure & Unbreakable Bonds**

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2478**_

_**Estoduin, Capital city of Pluto**_

_**Athena Castle, the Time Senshi's Permanent Residence**_

_**The departure **_

It was dawn on Pluto and the morning sun beat down upon them with extreme intensity. Pluto's climate was going to be raging hot this day, for at least the morning with no clue as to the afternoon climate. Jade had come out of the castle completely prepared for the morning heat, not wearing his Saturnarian traveling cloak, but instead cradling it on his shoulder as Michiru followed behind him. Haruka stood alone on the edge of the garden watching as Setsuna mulled over the final travel details with her brother while Michiru admired the flowers and dipped her hands in to the cooling water of the courtyard's fountain, watching as the water swirled comfortingly around her fingertips.

Feeling the weight of a hand on her shoulder, Michiru turned around to see Haruka standing behind her.

"Yes?" Michiru asked with a smile, just happy to see her Uranian companion again before her departure.

"I just wanted to…well…to wish you good health on your journey." Haruka stammered as her original reason for confronting her friend was forgotten and her cheeks turned an interesting shade of red as she coughed nervously.

Michiru smiled in complete understanding, "I have something for you, Haruka."

Haruka watched surprised, as Michiru reached behind her neck and lifted her hair so that she could unhook the clip which held the aquamarine pendant around her neck. She removed the silver necklace and reached out for Haruka's hand, dropping the necklace into the Uranian's palm and closing her fingers over it gently.

"Why are you giving this to me?" Haruka asked slightly miffed as to the meaning behind Michiru's action.

"This necklace was the treasure of my ancestors. Entarais was one of its many keepers, she wore it into battle against the Uranians and then after her demise, my grandfather offered the honored heirloom to my mother as a wedding gift when she married my father and my mother then offered it to me when I left home. It is the only piece of my home left in my keeping, to remind me of far off shores and crashing waves, when times become unbearable; but I have found that being away from my new companion would be more unbearable for me than being away from my home land. And so I give you this necklace, so that where ever we may be in this universe, we will never be separated for you will always have a piece of me with you." Michiru explained finding the bewildered Uranian's look of surprise truly amusing as a warm, fuzzy feeling flooded throughout her entire being at being close to Haruka.

Haruka appeared uncertain and studied where the silver necklace now rested in her small hands.

Then she gazed back up at the Neptunian princess whom had been so intently watching her.

"Thank you. I promise that from this day forward I will cherish this necklace because it came from you." Haruka said, smiling a rare, sad smile. She was unwilling to leave the comfort her companion's presence offered her.

"Michiru, we must make leave now if we are to get to Saturn by the time their morning dawns, and then it will be another two day journey to my home in Maxem." Jade said walking up behind Michiru with Setsuna at his side.

The Plutonian prince reached out and ruffled Haruka's hair slightly, before clapping her on the back in a friendly manner. The gesture that was intended to be slight and friendly, knocked the Uranian princess off of her feet and onto the rocky ground as Jade had forgotten what an affect his enhanced strength would have on the small child.

"Ow." Haruka groaned as she massaged her chin which she had fallen on; where a small yet deep cut was beginning to bleed. It was not a serious injury, but it would leave a slight and almost unrecognizable scar that she would carry for the rest of her life.

Setsuna reached down gently and helped the child to stand back up. Haruka brushed the dirt from her cloak and then glared up at Jade whom was looking sheepishly back down at her.

"Sorry." Jade apologized, "I guess I do not know my own strength."

A servant clad in brown garments walked towards them leading a black steed by its reigns. The saddle blanket was of amethyst while the saddle was a Neptunian saddle and the bridle the style used by Mercurian horsemen.

Haruka's teal eyes narrowed as one stray lock of her short sandy colored hair continued to fall in her face as she tried in vain to blow it off from in between her eyes. Michiru giggled and reached out tentatively to brush the stray lock of hair out of Haruka's face.

Jade settled his foot in the stirrup and mounted the horse. He reached down and grasped Michiru's small hand pulling her up to sit in front of him. "We must make haste, the docking station is a good two hours ride to Saturn. If we are to arrive in time we must depart now."

Haruka hurried up to the side of the horse and starred up into Michiru's eyes.

"We will see one another some day won't we?" She asked, fear in her eyes.

Jade grimaced and threw a saddened glance towards his sister. Tearing two friends as close as this apart was not his cup of tea.

Michiru appeared uncertain, the same fear arising in her cerulean gaze, "I do not know."

Suddenly, Jade kicked the sides of his horse and they were off, galloping away at breakneck speed. Haruka was torn between decisions in her head and allowing fear to seize her, she began running after the horse as fast as her speedy legs could carry her.

"Haruka!" Setsuna called after her as she sped after her young charge, only able to reach half of the wind-born Uranian's speed.

Michiru turned her head only slightly to gaze back at Haruka, a pleading gaze that spoke volumes to her Uranian friend. Haruka stopped in her tracks, panting for air. She watched possibly her only true friend ride away, maybe never to see her again. Setsuna laid a comforting hand on Haruka's shoulder.

"He travels far, but my brother has never once broken a promise to me and he promised that as soon as her training is finished, she will be returned to us." Setsuna said comfortingly to Haruka as her teal gaze never wavered, searching the distance for the fleeting black speck. "If there is one characteristic that I have observed taking shape in the Neptunian royal family over the years, it is their resilience and determination to finish what was started and their stubbornness to do what they feel is right to benefit others. The women in her family have knacks for acquiring such attributes. He mother, the queen, was the same way in her youth, but they settle down in time. Do not fear, for it is not in her nature to abandon a friend she cares so deeply about. She will return one day."

Setsuna was all knowing, thanks impart not only to her power to follow the time stream, but also in part because of the experience of her many years of life. She knew the many possibilities of the future, she knew that Haruka and Michiru were bound to one another by a bond which could not be severed, and one day, if they survived their many battles; they would be reunited again.

Haruka felt the familiar pain of loss tearing at her soul, but no tears came to her eyes. She instead, felt this horrible emptiness that something important part of herself was gone; giving way to this lonely life of honor and duty.

"I am sorry for your pain, I know you two were becoming fast friends, but have courage. You must be strong now, if you are to endure the hardships which are to come. The old days of your life are now gone. You are the princess and heir to the throne of Uranus no longer."

Haruka turned to gaze up at Setsuna. She saw swimming in those timeless garnet eyes, so many emotions, but she was too inexperienced to divide each one out from the rest. What the most dominate emotion was, Haruka could not tell. There was fear, a great deal of it in fact and adoration, which out weighed all else in the feelings bursting from the kind soul beneath. There was love, sorrow, and could it be…remorse? Yes, out of all of the emotions constantly present in those eyes, remorse was the most frequently noticed by others.

"Now it is time to begin your training." Setsuna said turning her gaze away from the Uranian child, not wanting her to register any of the complicated emotions raging inside of her.

Haruka still at a loss, nodded her head numbly and followed Setsuna as she led her to the castle's training grounds which were situated just beyond the front gates. Haruka tried not to show her fear and anxiousness, but she could not restrain the intense emotions completely.

"Setsuna?"

"Yes?"

"W-will this training be very difficult to master?" Haruka asked feeling her stomach turning in her belly.

Setsuna smiled a bit at the tiny nervous lilt in the Uranian child's voice, "It will be the hardest training that you will ever endure in your lifetime."

Haruka tried to swallow the nervous lump in her throat, but with no success.

"I would not worry about that though, there is a leader in you yet, Haruka. You may be young, but I can see it in you." Setsuna reassured her young charge.

"You will train me well?" Haruka asked as Setsuna nodded the affirmative, "So that perhaps one day I may fight as well as Regelle did?"

Setsuna smiled knowingly, "You know the story of Regelle Tenous?"

Setsuna had to take a step back as the small, but very excited Uranian child almost jumped on her, "It is my most favorite of stories!"

"Is it now?" Setsuna smiled kindly and laughed lightly, "So you wish someday to be like Regelle?"

Haruka appeared sheepish as a small blush crept to her cheeks, "Yes. I used to run into the guard house and take out one of the wooden swords and a shield and run out to the backlands where I would play in the trees as if I were Regelle or a soldier fighting next to her. In my family, a princess who has not a standing may have a dream, and may always find a hero in Regelle; because she did the impossible because she was a woman of our family, not in spite of it. She is my hero and my wish is that someday I may be like her."

Setsuna smiled at the determination she could see in the child's eyes. "Someday you will be. Someday you will be."

**Author's note: ** A sad departure and the beginning of an uncertain future. There shall be more. R & R!


	5. Roads & Paths

**Chapter 5: Roads & Paths**

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2478**_

_**Estoduin, Capital city of Pluto**_

_**Athena Castle, the Time Senshi's Permanent Residence**_

"It is too heavy!" Haruka ground out between gritted teeth as she struggled to lift the long object off from the ground, "I think my arms will break soon!"

"You can lift it, Haruka. You have the potential in you to use it, I could see it in you from the beginning." Setsuna reassured as her young charge heaved and tugged at the two handed sword that was almost as tall as she, its blade point resting in the sand of the training yard before her, unbothered. "Now, One, two, three, and lift!"

Haruka gave a mighty yank and the sword flew from its place on the ground up into her arms and was now pushing her body backwards towards the ground, finally pinning her beneath its weight as she lost her battle with gravity and fell to the dirt with a loud thud. Setsuna sighed and walked over to stand beside where the Uranian child lay on the ground. Haruka lay looking very frustrated and annoyed and Setsuna did not attempt to stop it, she laughed freely at the child's facial expression.

Haruka was surprised at first, but then she felt the red rise of humiliation in her cheeks at her patron's laughter. "Help me up!"

Setsuna's laughter died down to a slight chuckle as she reached out a hand to the fallen child, pulling her up by one elbow as the sword dropped from her lap on fell fully to the ground.

"It will take practice, but I have no doubt that you will master the sword one day soon." Setsuna said standing before her young student.

Haruka shook her head, crestfallen. "It is too heavy. I can not lift it."

Setsuna's hand landed comfortingly on the Uranian's shoulder, gaining her full attention. "Now, now Haruka, time is your friend. You must give it the patience it deserves. The sword does not give the warrior their power. A senshi's strength must come from inside. Now, try again."

Haruka nodded, not meeting her mentor's eyes as she bent over and struggled to lift the weapon that weighted almost as much as she did. _One last swing_ she thought to herself _I should be able to do that easy_. An overconfident grin spread over the length of Haruka's face and Setsuna frowned.

Haruka took a deep breath and heaved the sword in a wide arc, over extending her swing too far for her to effectively balance her weight. Alas, Plutonian gravity is not a forgiving force. A loud thud resonated over the tall stone wall surrounding the courtyard followed by a punctuated 'ouch'. Setsuna sighed and rubbed the back of her head in fatigue. She had a strong feeling. This was going to be a long, long day of practice.

_**

* * *

**__**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2478**_

_**Ionian Plain, Saturn**_

_**The Road to a New Home**_

The road was dusty and churned from the previous day of merchants travels. Jade and Michiru rode astride Jade's great black steed, Amulius, as they traveled the road.

"Prince Jade?" Michiru asked, the name and title sounding odd coming from between her lips. "May I ask a question?"

"Of course you may." Jade answered with a slight chuckle at the small girl's formality.

"Your name sounds familiar. I could have sworn I had heard it before." Michiru said thinking back to the days when her mother and her would spend a great deal of time together, either conversing at the dinner table or whilst going for rides on the coast, "My mother used to speak of you to me. Did she know you rather well?"

"As intimately as she could have known any person." Jade said smiling as the memories came flooding back to him. "I loved your mother, unconditionally. It seems, ages ago now."

Michiru pondered to herself for a moment before asking again, her young mind confused at the question, "If you loved my mother then why did you not marry her?"

"It was not to be." Jade replied a bit remorsefully as his eyes, earlier soft and merry, hardened, "She was the eldest in her family and by law the heir to the Neptunian throne. Our age we both had in common for I too was the eldest heir to my throne. This proved to be our undoing. As we were both first in line for the crown, our engagement was deemed ineligible. Even after we were certain that we could have no chance of a happily married life with one another, we would continue to try and steal moments alone together, finding it almost too painful for one to live alone without the other, but time was of the essence and so our meetings could only be brief.

"I hated leaving her after every meeting, not knowing if the last time we had met would be the last time I would see her again. Her father, Emperor Mariner, caught onto my convenient absences during our family visits and diplomatic assignments to Neptune and so he sent a servant to follow me one day. The servant then reported back to the king that in my absences, I was retreating in leisure to his only daughter's chambers.

"As you can well imagine, the revelation of our secret love to both of our families was a shock and it shamed both our houses; staining the reputation of both of our heritages terribly. My father was outraged and disgraced. We left Neptune not a day later and upon the day of our arrival home my father announced to our court that he had arranged my marriage to Grimhild, the only daughter of Count Antine of Saturn, to secure a trade alliance between our two planets. I never saw or heard from Neptunia again for years on end after that day.

"For a time I would spend all of my free hours patrolling the trade markets looking for Neptunian merchants. I would question them about their monarchy and what news came of them. I found out that upon the day of my departure from Neptune, the Emperor had announced to his people that their princess was to wed Prince Ronan of the Isles of Cona. That was the last I heard of her for many later years to come.

"Even after my marriage to Grimhild, my heart still ached for Neptunia. She had left a void there that no one else could fill, not even love for my first child, Duncan; could close the void. Then my sister's wedding came. Neptunia was her maid of honor dressed in a dark blue gown which offset her eyes looking more beautiful than I had ever seen her before. I must admit, I felt somewhat guilty at not being able to keep my full attention upon the ceremony at hand. It was of course my only sister's wedding, but I could not detach my gaze from Neptunia.

"Finally, I found my courage and approached her when she left the dining table to view the castle gardens of my home planet. I confronted her gently. She seemed surprised at first and then as the familiarity bloomed between us again, she threw her arms around me and we embraced happily for the first time in years. Being guests of our home, she and her new husband would be staying on Pluto for the next two weeks until the wedding festivities had ended. Often I would sneak away from the festivities to spend time with her, in the gardens or by the shores of the sea. It did not matter where we went as long as I was in her presence.

"Then the last night of her visit came and we spent as much time as we could together during that day. The night ended and she gave me a tearful goodbye and a kiss to seal all time with. I retreated to my chambers grieved and defeated. In the middle of the night I awoke to the sound of my chamber door opening and closing. I looked up and met her steady gaze. She stayed with me that night, it was wondrous and beautiful and it still is the greatest memory I can ever recall. When we awoke that morning I begged her to stay with me on my planet, to run away with me, but she would not forsake her responsibilities to her people, she would not do that; not even for the promise of my eternal love. She left after breakfast with her husband, my heart breaking as she did so.

"I never beheld the queen of Neptune again after that. She was lost to me, even after her husband's death she remained unreachable for me." Jade finished clearing his throat loudly announcing that the story was not open for questions or inquiry.

Michiru thought about the story she had just heard. Her mother had never told her about her affair with the Plutonian prince before, although she did mention him often with affection in her voice and a far away look in her eyes. Sometimes the Queen would ask questions of foreign visitors who came to her court, inquiring about the Plutonian royal family. Although Jade had told her the whole story, she still could not make very much sense to her. It all just seemed to be a jumbled mess to her, but still it was an interesting story.

"That was a good story." Michiru said with an affectionate appreciation and ignorance as only a small child may have. Then with the same inexperienced curiosity and naivety, she asked, "Will you ever return to my mother's side?"

"No." He grimaced as if suddenly struck upside the head, "Life is all about loving and learning." Jade replied sagely, but gently. "You will understand my reasoning someday, when you grow up."

_Life is all about loving and learning. _Michiru only nodded, pondering the prince's words in her head. They simply did not make sense to her. _What does that mean?_ Michiru pondered. These words would never come to affect her, she reasoned, how could they?

* * *

The sun was setting over the Ionian valley, the light lavender of the sky slowly fading into darker shades as the sun began to disappear on the horizon. The ebony stallion slowed from its smooth canter down into an even trot as it pranced off from the gravel road into a large outcrop of trees along with its two riders. Becoming excited at recognizing the surrounding wooded area, Amulius broke into a brilliant gallop.

The trunks of russet trees and dense foliage flew by, blurred to the eyes of the travelers by the horse's immense racing speed. His two riders clung to his back, the plutonian prince sat the gallop with magnificent ease while the his young charge moved tediously from side to side in the saddle, the latter's arm slung around her waist being the only support that Michiru had holding her on the animal's back.

The wind whipped uncomfortably against her face as fear ran fiercely through her. Michiru had never ridden a horse before properly let alone been on one at this speed. Branches brushed and gave way as the horse slowed through its paces into an even walk into an open glade. The trees here were covered in green vines and the tall grasses were littered with small groups of richly colored flowers. It was like a dream. As they entered more into this enclosed paradise, the bushes parted to reveal a humble homestead.

It was short and plain, nothing much to appreciate compared to the natural beauty around it. The slanted roof was thatched and at its front it possessed two windows, left open from the day's heat and one single door, left shut to the approaching gloom of night.

"Where are we?" Michiru asked quietly still admiring the unparalleled splendor of the place.

"Home." Jade replied with an elated sigh at the sight, "And I have been away for far too long."

A tiny face and two eyes appeared in one of the windows then disappeared briefly as the child leapt from the floor of the place on to the windowsill, preceding to climb over it in unrestrained glee.

"Papa!" The tiny flaxen haired girl yelled as she vaulted towards the approaching black stallion and its riders.

Michiru lifted her head up a bit higher so that she could better examine the strange little child. She was about her height and probably close to her age, but her skin was ashen white and her hair fell in short ebony curls down to her ears.

The girl's eyes were deep amethyst and seemed to match the tone of the world she had only recently entered. The expression on her face was that of bewilderment and perhaps fear as well.

Jade dismounted swiftly and ran to the girl, holding her in his arms while spinning in very slow circles.

"Finduilas, my angel!" Jade called as he came sudden halting stand, still holding his youngest daughter in his arms. "How have you been fairing?"

Somehow, Michiru was beginning to feel very out of place in this new environment. She lifted her cerulean gaze up to take in her new surroundings. It was a small cottage, modest and simple, yet elegant and homely in design. The trees of the brazen forest surrounding the cottage seemed to reach to the gods, towering high above her short height.

It was cozy…if only to the family that occupied it.

Studying the heartwarming display between father and daughter before her, Michiru realized a despicable truth. She was now alone. Cast away from everything she knew, the people she cared for, and a mother she loved. Where was she now? In a strange, but beautiful valley with a stranger and his kin. And for the first time since her leaving, she was dreadfully afraid.

The wooden door to the cottage suddenly burst open, freeing the home's warm light out into the dimming evening. A shadowed figure came to stand where the door had been.

Michiru readjusted her gaze to a slight woman whom had settled within the doorframe of cottage, holding a basked full of what appeared to be mushrooms in arm and a drooling baby haphazardly against her side in the other. Her face was thin and drawn, her eyes molten and dark and her hair was a iridescent shade of honey. She was slender, appearing bony in the flowered blouse and plain skirt. Michiru cocked her head to one side in curiosity. A mother from the looks of her and a hardworking cook from the dirtied appearance of her off white apron….who could she be?

She must be…she must be Jade's wife…and one of her new caretakers. Michiru's stomach sank, if at all possible, farther down in her middle.

"Finally, the great explorer returns." The woman in the doorway said, her voice laden with bitterness and sarcasm. "To what does his abandoned family owe the honor?"

Jade put Finduilas down and tussled her flaxen hair affectionately, before turning to his wife.

"Not abandoned, wife." Jade replied in good humor which Grimhild did not seem to reflect. "Simply waylaid."

Another child emerged at the door beside his mother, a boy at least a head's height taller than Michiru. His skin and eyes possessed the same hue as Jade's own, but his honeyed hair was that of Grimhild, his mother.

"Siril." The woman spoke to her son as she handed the baby at her side to him," Take your brother."

The boy obeyed and returned into the depths of the house, leaving his mother one hand freer. Grimhild began walking down the small incline towards her husband when she noticed Michiru still sitting upon Amulius' back. Dark eyes widened only in curiosity, not in animosity at the sight of the foreign child and her strange hair color.

"Who is this?" Grimhild raised a slender eyebrow towards her husband in inquiry.

"Oh, where are my manners!" Jade scrambled towards Amulius and held onto his Neptunian charge's arm as she dismounted shakily to the ground.

Finduilas walked up towards her mother and hid slightly behind her side, curious of the newcomer, but cautious also. Jade reappeared before them with Michiru at his side.

"This is Michiru, the senshi intended of Neptune." Jade explained, "She is the daughter of Neptune's ruling queen and I have been appointed by Queen Serenity to train her."

Grimhild studied the girl in question. Her eyes were softly curious, not sternly scrutinizing and that offered Michiru some comfort, but not much. Grimhild's eyes turned menacingly on her husband.

"You could have given me a day's warning to prepare for our guest." Grimhild exploded.

Jade threw his hands up in mock surrender, dodging his wife's glare. "I would have, had I though it would help you any."

Michiru could not help the hiding her small laugh at the dysfunctional couple. They both turned to look at her, somewhat at a loss as to what she found so amusing. Finduilas laughed too, seeing the humor in the all too normal exchange between her parents. She liked this newcomer already.

"Well." Grimhild softened as she turned to Michiru. "You must be hungry after your long journey."

Michiru felt her cheeks redden at finally being noticed and shyly answered, "A little."

"Great!" Jade stretched his arms above his head and leaned down to his daughter, "Are you hungry, angel?"

"Yeah!" Finduilas's excited reply vibrated through the evening air.

"Alright" Jade turned toward Michiru and waved his arms in a jovial gesture, "Let us feast!"

"Oh, you!" Grimhild complained as she swatted him on the head for acting like a over grown child instead of a man.

Jade only laughed and took off running for the house with his tiny daughter in toe. Michiru laughed even as she caught the gaze of the prince's wife. Grimhild, for her part, could not help but return the child's enthused smile. Maybe her husband did have his uses after all. She laughed mentally at that, but did not show it.

"You must be starved." Grimhild said taking Michiru's hand as she led her to the door of the cabin. "What do you better prefer, little miss, fried potatoes or stewed ones?"

"Oh, my." Michiru thought out loud as they entered the cabin and their voices became more distant, "I think both."

Grimhild smiled proudly at the child who seemed to have a better liking for good food than her own offspring did. Perhaps, in time, she may come to like this girl. What was she saying? She did already."Good girl."

Later that night, Michiru lay still in her bed, wrapped tightly in a drab wool blanket. It was a small dwelling and so extra room was not left available for visitors. Finduilas had kindly offered to share her room and so it was here the two young girls had retreated for the night, their bellies full of warm stew and freshly baked bread, bundled snugly atop a mattress of straw. Michiru gazed around at the simple wooden walls she knew were there, but could not see. The room was dark. Earlier it had housed the light of one dimly burning candle as the children had readied themselves for bed, but now the only luminance in the room floated up through the cracks between the floor boards from the fire lit kitchen below.

Despite the friendly company that Jade's daughter had offered, Michiru still felt somewhat alone. She did not know if it was the knowledge that she was in a new place with a new group of people for the second time in less than three days, or if it was simply the fact that she missed her mother; but sleep continued to elude her. Taking a deep breath, the Neptunian princess sat up in her bed, careful not to wake her sleeping companion and slowly edged off from the bed to stand on her feet. Quietly, Michiru began stepping into the darkness searching for the door that would lead out of the loft.

The rough wooden floor boards were cold and gruff against the surface of her bare feet as they seemed to glide over them gracefully. One small porcelain hand reached out in search of the door. Finding the cold metal knob, she turned it and with a slight click it gave way as light from the first floor flooded through the partial crack. She climbed down the awkward ladder and onto the landing area. Michiru looked about cautiously. To her right was the kitchen and dining area where the large cooking fire was dwindling down to embers in the hearth, offering no more than a simple meger glow. While to her left in the same room was the bed where Jade and his wife slept behind a curtain of silken cerulean.

She crept by, balancing all of her weight upon her toes as she snuck by. Suddenly, the Neptunian princess's balance waned and she had to step back to catch herself, stepping on the noisy board she had been avoiding the whole trip out. She swayed tediously to and fro, the rickety wood creaking as she struggled to stand upright. Finally stable, Michiru took a steadying breath and moved soundlessly forward. She stared warily between the blue folds an open corner in the bedside curtain, wanting to make sure she had not woken her hosts. They had not stirred, sleeping like the dead.

A proud smile slid itself across Michiru's face as she opened the cabin door and then closed it behind her, leaving it unbolted. The thick amethyst night loomed over her head. Little holes in the dark canopy radiated their own light down upon the planet of doom. It was a cool night. Mist rolled in waved around Michiru's body, engulfing her in a cold dampness that clung to her skin in a calming shroud. The dampness reminded her of the mornings on her planet, when the sea would be relishing in its own salty mist.

She missed it. Her home, if she could even dare call Neptune that anymore. It was a part of her, one that she had been forced to leave behind. Her home, the salty water planet now billions of leagues away from her small form. The promise of watching the dawn break over the waves of the sea was no more, a dismal memory of what could no longer be. No more playing in the shallow waters of Poseidon's Cove. No more racing to the islands across from the castle shore. No more hearing her mother's comforting words on nights when sleep eluded her and evil dreams taunted her. No more warm hugs from her caring mother, the only parent still spared to take care of her.

Her father had been a kind man and a good king, but no matter how good he was, he could not make up for his body's lack of immunity and so on one somber morning; he had passed away. The victim of a fever epidemic that swept through the Isabella archipelago. It was the first time in her young life that she had been introduced to death, but it was not a tragedy. So young was she at the time that she could not recall her father's memory if she tried. But he was not the one important factor she would miss from her homeland.

Her mother was.

They had always spent time together. The queen was of course busy most of the time with affairs of state and foreign matters, but she managed to always be there when her only daughter needed her. No more. No more.

_What will I do? _Michiru wondered as tears slowly began to stream from the sides of her arms. _I really am alone. No more mother…_

Suddenly, a not so distant memory of her newest friend flooded her mind. The blond headed Uranian. Her smile. Haruka running after them as they rode away. _To never see her again…what shall I do?_

Michiru tightly gripped her shoulders as a cool breeze washed over her, closing her eyes as her aqua hair was swept back. The Neptunian princess uttered a sigh as she gazed up at the stars shining out across the Saturnarian sky.

_Haruka…_

_**

* * *

First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2478**_

_**Estoduin, Capital city of Pluto**_

_**Athena Castle, the Time Senshi's Permanent Residence**_

The smoky purple moon lumbered over the plutonian landscape in the darkness of its midnight. It was late. The heat of the evening had begun to mingle with an early morning coolness which had caused a light fog to settle upon the ground, contrasting greatly with the dark blue hue of the sky.

The metal blade caught the light of the stars as it sliced clumsily through the dense air. Haruka leaned over, gasping for air as warm droplets of newly shed sweat soaked into the moist dirt of the training yard. Haruka gritted her teeth together as she lifted the sword again for another swing, swaying slightly with the weight of it before she pushed, slicing the sword violently through the thick night air. Setsuna's words rang loudly in her ears.

_Control Haruka, you must pace yourself. _

Haruka nodded as she took a breath to steady her self, willing her abused muscles to try again. Her body was ready for the attack, but her thoughts betrayed her. Memories flashed before her eyes. Her mother sobbing in her uncles arms. Michiru smiling at her when they first met at the Neptunian castle. Haruka lifted the sword quickly and let out a brutal assault upon the night against her memories.

"_Setsuna! If you do this we will no longer be friends, no longer be allies, you will be dead to me do you hear me, dead to me!"_

The double blade flashed silver against the night, causing its wielder to fiercely fall to the side. Ignoring her screaming muscles, Haruka rose again, ready to attack again.

"_In my family, a princess who has not a standing may have a dream, and may always find a hero in Regelle; because she did the impossible because she was a woman of our family, not in spite of it. She is my hero and my wish is that someday I may be like her."_

_Setsuna smiled at the determination she could see in the child's eyes. "Someday you will be. Someday you will be." _

Haruka let out a small yell as the force of an over extended thrust maneuver landed her on her stomach on the ground. She stared at the ground, watching a tear drip off from the end of her nose and land in the dirt along with a smaller red drop. Haruka flinched as she saw the blood and reached up to her chin, fingering the small cut that had reopened in all of the exertion.

"_We will see one another some day won't we?" She asked, fear in her eyes._

_Jade grimaced and threw a saddened glance towards his sister. Tearing two friends as close as this apart was not his cup of tea._

_Michiru appeared uncertain, the same fear arising in her cerulean gaze, "I do not know_."

Haruka pounded her fists against the ground in frustration. Why would these memories not leave her be?

"_Why do you hold me at bay?" Michiru asked serious at first and then bemused soon afterward, "Why? Is it a crime to wish to help those whom you care for?"_

That was the last straw. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she stood up quickly, snatching the blade up and swinging wildly, with no regard for her surroundings.

"_Yes, of course." Queen Eilinela laughed nervously trying to put off her only child's departure as long as possible. "Breakfast! I almost forgot…we can't send you off hungry now can we?"_

_Mamma!_ Haruka swung as if she were fighting for her life with hopeless abandon. _Michiru…if I do not conquer this then I will loose them all! I will never get back to mama. I will never see Michiru again!_

Haruka collapsed on her side on the ground in exhaustion as the sword fell to the dirt with a clang beside her. She shook with small sobs, not even fighting to deflect her tears. Squaring up on her elbows she gazed up at the stars above her.

_Michiru…_

**Author's Note: **Wow! It has been a while! I hope you all like this. If anyone has any questions please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks!


	6. Such is Life

**Chapter 6: Such is Life **

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2479**_

_**Ionian Plain, Saturn**_

_**Jade's House**_

Finduilas ran along the green glade tirelessly. The sun was out to play and so was she. It was a beautiful afternoon the gods had surely blessed them with. It had been a good year and now spring was upon them. The household of Jade, prince of Pluto, was at its most active and alive with the sudden revival of warm weather. The purple sky was a stunning shade of violet in concurrence with the light rays of the sun penetrating the thin, wisp like clouds above the cottage. There was a warm breeze blowing about the place, stirring the essence of flowers and spring water all in to one palatable fragrance. It was calming, not nearly as calming as watching the sapphire waves break over the shores of her own coastal home mind you, but still, Michiru had come to love it here. It was a nature which put her at peace with herself, helping her cope with all of the tumultuous changes which had affected her over the course of the past year.

Jade had told her it was only natural to feel different. When change occurs it can either be blatant in its coming or entirely subtle, whichever way it came, it was difficult to understand and bear. It was not so hard now as it had been in the beginning. Michiru had come to love this family like it were her own. The children had accepted her naturally, as if she had been on of them forever from the first day she had arrived. Elboron and Siril, the two eldest of Jade's sons, were both protective of her though Elborn was almost a man grown and Siril was only two years her senior, they had adopted Michiru as if she were their own sister. Michiru had, by far, formed her closest friendship with Finduilas, Jade's only daughter. The two were close in age and Finduilas had accepted Michiru in friendship the first morning she had awoken next to her. Perseus, the youngest son, was an infant a little over a year in age, but despite his small stature; the boy was intensely close to his siblings.

Whenever the children would leave the house to play, Perseus would cry to follow them and when he was brought out to watch them, he would try to roughhouse with his brothers as if her were their size. Perseus was also as much as sister's brother as he was to either Siril or Elborn. He liked to smell and play in the flowers with she and Michiru and had often done so on more than one occasion. Then there was Grimhild. She was a kind woman, not half as harsh or angry as Michiru had expected upon first sight. She treated Michiru with the love and respect she had earned living here over the past year and Michiru just enjoyed learning from her. Every time she would cook up another wonderful meal, Michiru would volunteer to help her make it, being taught in the process how to cook, peel, bake, and fry. She also assisted with other tasks, such as cleaning, working in the garden, and helping in the stables. Such hard jobs would have scarcely been assigned to her in the palace at home, but Michiru didn't seem to care and she in fact enjoyed doing them.

As for the precocious prince, Jade had devoted almost all of his time in this last year to Michiru. Her training had begun slowly at first, for Jade had been intent on easing her into it, but Michiru was a fast learner and she had advanced faster than he had expected over the last few months, so much so that she had almost completely mastered her early weapons training sessions and was now moving on to the hardest avenue: elemental training. Now was when she was to learn how to master her element of water. It had all been arranged. She was to set off within the next fortnight for the seaside village of Quatorze where she and Jade would begin her elemental training. The training would be a long excursion which would take many months to complete, but it had to be done. For the good of the Queen and the defense of her outposts, it had to be done.

Michiru and Grimhild were in the kitchen of the cozy cabin, finishing up preparations for the evening meal. The Saturnarian woman was a master cook, but it still took her all day to prepare the final meal , to make sure it was just so. They had washed and peeled vegetables for the duration of the morning and had begun on the basting sauce around early afternoon. Michiru stirred the iron pot over the fire with a great wooden spoon, her hear held back by a single blue ribbon. Leaning forward, small ivory hands took hold of a smaller spoon and dipped it in the frothy scarlet brew to taste. After blowing on the small sampling with care, she bought it to her lips to try, the criticism of an accomplished chef sitting on her young brow. Finding it to her liking, Michiru smiled a small self satisfied smile to herself as she set the smaller spoon down on the counter and hung the larger spoon up on its hook.

"The sauce is almost ready, Grimhild." Michiru announced wiping her hands on a towel. "It's boiling now."

"Good. We will be able to take it off of the fire soon." Grimhild commented from her place hunched over a mutton roast she was rubbing herbs and oil into. "After that's done we will place the pot in the corner to keep it warm while we put the roast on the fire and then when the hour draws nearer to evening, we can place the bread in the oven and start the apples for the Emplumeus dish in the ashes. If the sauce is frothing, then it should be nearly done, watch it and when the bubbles become translucent, we will take it out of the fire."

Michiru nodded silently and pulled a stool up across from the fireplace. Resignedly, she rested her chin on her hand and sighed as her eyes focused on the purplish foam rising and deflating routinely off from the sauce's simmering surface. Jade had gone to the town center to make the final arrangements for their trip to the coast and would not be back until nightfall. Elborn and Siril were out hunting and Finduilas, after her mother had caught her running back from the flower fields, had been assigned to the garden tending to the vegetables. Even baby Perseus was sleeping soundly in his basinet in the adjoining room. Normally, she would be content with the prospect of helping out with the morning meal, but for some reason her heart was not in it today, nor her mind for that matter. Effortlessly, she closed her cerulean eyes to the elegant dancing of the cooking flames. Michiru's focus was somewhere else entirely this afternoon. For some reason, she could not stop thinking of her. Of the golden haired Uranian child training, just as she was on some distant planet far away.

She had spent only a brief amount of time with the Uranian princess, but Michiru's memories of Haruka were just as vivid and alive as though she had seen her that very morning. It was strange that so concise a meeting should leave her with so deep an impression, but the images of Haruka of Uranus dominated her thoughts most days it seemed. There was no escaping it and she was not so sure she wanted to. Haruka was familiar, like a wave a warmth that suddenly flooded over and held you, tenderly away from the world. She was her escape, a pillar of strength that could not be overridden or beaten down. She did not know how she could be so certain of such things with only memories to guide her by them, but she knew they were true, regardless Michiru believed in them just as she believed in the Uranian child who inspired them.

Grimhild looked up from her work as her ever watchful eyes landed on Michiru. That girl was as much of her charge as that of her husband, she had realized that the first day Jade had brought her back to live with them. Taking one hand, Grimhild continued to work herbs into the meat roast skillfully while never once removing her eyes from the princess. Michiru, she observed, was staring distractedly into the flames of the fireplace, seemingly lost in the fluctuating abyss of the blazing logs beneath the cooking pot. Then her cerulean eyes closed as she abandoned all wakefulness to her inner thoughts. Grimhild shook her head.

The little girl had a flare for dreaming and art. They had come to find that out during the first week of her stay here. Though she did not talk much in the beginning, the Neptunian princess was a gifted painter. Michiru had proved that one day when she etched a picture on the side of the garden shed with a piece of charcoal, an image of a large city by a sea. It was Finduilas who had pointed out the picture to them and it had been her who had congratulated Michiru on what a good job well done. Jade had been impressed to say the least, but not surprised. Neptune was a planet of the arts, so it was not uncommon that one of its royals would be born so young with such great talent in the area. Since then, Michiru had opened up to the family more, had become much more talkative and social with the other children, especially Finduilas.

The two girls were close in age and had become great friends in the short time Michiru had been here. It was amazing almost. Grimhild blew frustrated air through her lips as she surveyed her handiwork. It should not have surprised her, but Grimhild had to admit that it had. Her daughter had never been the shy type when it came to meeting and forming friendships with others, but there were so few families living this far outside the town of Partholon that her chances of meeting that many children whom she could call friends were slim and Grimhild was happy that Finduilas had found someone her own age to spend time with.

Truthfully, joy grew in her heart at the strong relationship between the two, but with it came worry also. Michiru would one day be a senshi, that was the reason her husband had brought her with him, for her training. And once it was completed, the time would come when the Neptunian princess would have to leave and with her would come her daughter's loneliness. Grimhild knew her daughter had a kind heart, but still she worried for that heart under fire. But what could she do? Every child had to grow up sooner or later, she could not stop it. Exasperatedly she sighed to herself. It was better to let it be, to let them have fun and bask in the glory of irresponsibility and carelessness while it was still theirs to have.

"Michiru?" Grimhild gazed up, finishing with the roast and coming over to stand beside her stool. "Is the sauce not done yet?"

Michiru opened her eyes hastily. The quietly frothing brew was now fostering clear, bulbous bubbles at its top. Yes, it was done.

"Yes." Michiru answered stepping off from the stool as she moved it over to the side and took a thick towel from a hook by the fireplace. "We should remove it before it boils over. I will help-"

"You will do no such thing!" Grimhild admonished. "You have been sitting inexpressively at you station before the fire for over ten minutes. Now, I do not know everything, but I do know utter boredom when I see it and distracted cooks do not make good meals." Grimhild turned to the window and looked out to find Finduilas, jaded with her garden work kicking dirt around the plot's border. "Finduilas has been taken by the same boredom it seems. You two, go run down to the meadow and pick some flowers for the table tonight. Take your time and enjoy the afternoon, I do not expect you girls home until the evening meal, but do not be late. I will not tolerate it."

Michiru practically threw the thick woven towel into the fire in her excitement and Grimhild barely managed to catch it as she was catapulted backward in a firm hug.

"Thank you." Michiru said gratefully.

Giving the motherly woman a kiss on the check, she bolted excitedly from the cabin and into the side yard, hoping she could catch Finduilas before she found something more mischievous to do.

----------

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2479**_

_**City of Lionath, Pluto**_

_**Castle Leir**_

It was night and the sky hung shadily over the Plutonian horizon on the raw autumn night. Two horses sped over the dirt path which paved the way through the countryside to the city gates, their labored breathing steaming against the cold evening air. One, a silvery steed of flea-bitten grey, galloped proudly ahead of the other; working with every fiber of its being to quicken the lengthy journey to a clean stall and bucket half full with grain while carrying its timeless mistress on its back. The second of the two, a young horse sporting a golden coat which flashed radiantly under the moonlight as it moved in its gait, sped after the other, its young rider directing it masterfully around the various low spots in the trail. The wind blew fiercely at the two riders, each one dressed warmly in over tunics and cloaks of rich wool. Well lit torches guided the way to the looming gatehouse as they approached. Gradually, the two riders slowed their horses to a slow walk outside the closed gate.

Haruka turned her horse in one full circle before stopping it fully before the iron grating. She pulled her hood back, cringing as a blast of cold air hit her undefended face. "It is closed. They had to have known we were coming. Why would they close it?"

Setsuna reigned up a few feet behind her, in full view of the watchtower leaning ominously over the side wall. Calmly she reached up and pushed back her hood as well, so as to leave no mystery as to who she was. "These are dangerous times. A foreign enemy comes unbidden to Pluto's door, nothing can be taken lightly. Nothing is certain. We can take nothing for granted."

A shadow had appeared atop the gatehouse, watching them. "Who are you?"

"I am Lady Setsuna of Estoduin come as Queen Serenity's representative to convene this council." Setsuna yelled up to the man.

The lone guard seemed to stall for a minute then he disappeared behind the wall. The clanking of chains was heard as the locking mechanism on the lofty iron doors was dropped and the iron grate began to creak slowly upwards. Once it was opened a man emerged from the torch lit tunnel. He was tall, Haruka observed, with hair as dark as ash and violet eyes to match. He was garbed in a amethyst gambeson layered by a brigandine of studded leather. Acutely Haruka noticed a standard arming sword at his side with a purple stone embedded in its hilt, this man was no ordinary soldier. Slowly he approached them, the emerald cloak fastened around his neck onto one shoulder whipping violently in the wind as he moved beyond the wall's protection. As he came closer, Setsuna dismounted and pulled the reins over her mount's head into a leading position. Haruka glared at her mentor incredulously. She did not trust this man, but then again she had never been fond of strangers, especially not strange men.

Setsuna shot her a reassuring look. "Come down."

Haruka grunted and leaned forward as she dismounted and followed suit with her reins. The man stopped before Setsuna.

"I am Tain, steward of the Saturnarian house of Neia," he explained as he ushered us into the tunnel and out of the blistering cold. "And it is my lord who ordered me to send for you."

"We have never met before, but I knew your father, Hreidmar, when he was in service to the royal family." Setsuna mentioned in casual conversation as they entered the city. "How is my old friend doing?"

Tain grimaced. "His health is deteriorating, I am afraid. The fever has taken an icy grip of him and refuses to let go. It appears as though the gods will take him from us at any moment."

Setsuna took a deep breath. "I am sorry to hear that. Hreidmar was one of my most supporting friends during my stay in your country, I do not know what I could have done had he not been there when Nathaniel was taken from me."

"I know. He treasured you as his friend." Tain remembered with a smile as he directed them to the royal stables where two eager hands stood willing to take their mounts from them. "He thought of you just as fondly as he did of the prince and his devotion to your well being was as strong as it was for the house he was bound by blood to serve. He would have done anything for you just as I would do anything for my lord Dodinel."

"I know. His heart is one of the purest I have encountered over the centuries, one without the ability to deceive." Setsuna turned to Tain as she handed the reins of her horse to a stable boy. "Tell him he will always be in my thoughts no matter how much time passes us by."

"It will give him joy to hear it." Tain issued. "Now, my lady, I have been assigned to escort you and your charge to the meeting hall."

Setsuna turned to follow Tain up the front steps of the castle's main entrance, but soon noticed that Haruka was not following her. Curiously, she turned back to the stable where the girl was holding on tightly to the reins of her horse.

"I always take care of Bleda myself, I do not think this night should be different from any other." Haruka replied to the inquisitive stare she was being given by her teacher.

They had been summoned here to the walled city of Lionath for a meeting. An assemblage of nobles had been called. The looming darkness, which had supposedly been subdued years earlier, had come out of hiding. It now posed a very real threat to Queen Serenity's kingdom and mainly the outlying planets. Pluto, being the closest to the unguarded zone of neutral space, was again the ancient outpost of the Moon's peaceful realm thrust to the forefront against the growing evil empire. This security council was the first of its kind in centuries, it was to decide the solution to a very pressing and urgent matter. Though she would rather have not come at all, this was an invaluable gathering which they had to attend and Haruka knew it.

Setsuna nodded agreeably, but her smile was reserved. "Do not delay too long, Haruka, the outcome of this council will affect everyone in the Moon Kingdom. Its ruling is not something a future senshi should miss."

"I understand." Haruka nodded.

Setsuna gave her one last wary look before she continued up the stairs in the wake of the steward. Haruka watched as she entered the castle and then led her horse into the stables. Carefully, she directed Bleda into an empty stall between two chestnut mounts, looped the reins around a wooden handle on the wall, and closed the wooden door behind her, latching it shut as she left. On her way along the cobblestone floor she saw the previous stable boy tending to Bavieca, Setsuna's horse.

"Boy, where is the grain for the horses stored?" Haruka asked watching as he threw some hay down in front of Bavieca's hungry eyes.

"In the adjoining room." He directed brushing the excess hay and its wretched dust from his the front of his rough linen vest. "I'll help you get to it."

Before Haruka could protest, he used one hand to propel him over the already bolted stall door and began walking to the other end of the stable. Haruka sighed in frustration and grudgingly followed the boy. They came to a small room stacked to the rafters with bails of hay. In one side stood five large barrels. The boy opened the top of one and filled a bucket full of grain for her.

"Thanks." Haruka replied reluctantly as the bucket was handed to. She hated to accept help from others, though she had to admit that without the help of this stable hand she would have never found where the grain was kept.

The boy nodded his dark head and followed her as she casually stomped back to her horse's side. The stable hand was perhaps a few years her senior, but he was about even with her in height. Joyfully, he glided by her turning around and walking backwards to face her.

"My name is Cador and my father is a servant in the house of Lord Asclepiodotus of this very city. What is your name?" The boy asked pryingly.

Haruka smirked. "I am Haruka of the house of Uranus and I am in the training of Lady Setsuna of Pluto."

The boy's steps faltered. "To become a knight? A protectorate and guardian of the Queen?"

Haruka immediately cursed the words only moments after they had left her mouth. Setsuna had told her to tell no one of her identity or rank while they were here. "Yes."

"I would have been in training myself, but under the new order of things no knights has been summoned to the moon in years." Cador interjected narrowing his eyes as Haruka entered the stall and set the bucket down on a hook before her horse. "It is almost as if…the knights have been disbanded…"

Haruka sighed silently as she hid from sight, shielded from Cador's nosy eyes by the main bulk of her horse's side as Bleda devoured the offered grain. Thank the gods she was short. _The people must not know, Haruka. If the populous realizes that the legendary guardians of their queen have been decimated then it could have dire repercussions for the crown. Serenity would face a question of faith in her power which could result in her dethronement followed by simultaneous rebellion and chaos, destroying the peace we have strived to achieve over these past millennia. Tell no one, promise me Haruka, you will tell no one who you are without me there with you. _

Haruka swallowed the lump in her throat as she remembered the conversation she and Setsuna had had before they departed Athena castle. She had broken her promise. In one moment of absent mindedness and thoughtless pride, she had betrayed her mentor, her people, and her whole country all in one. Guilt flooded through her, but wait. It was only a stable boy she had spoken to, it was not as though she had proclaimed her identity to the entire town square. Haruka took a deep, fortifying breath. It was fine. The boy was odd. He would tell no one aside from a few estranged steeds and she doubted they would relay the information to anyone.

"What is it like?" Cador asked crossing around so that he could stand across from her, clear envy reflecting outward from his purplish eyes. "Being trained by Serenity's head guardian herself?"

Haruka kept her eyes focused on where the lamp light was shining off from the golden coat of Bleda's neck. "It is hard," she admitted. "The Lady Setsuna is a challenging teacher."

"Well, with all of her years of battle and combat experience at Serenity's side, T'is to be expected." He admonished with a grudging nod.

Haruka left the stall, latching the oaken door in place behind her. "I must go. My lady will not tolerate my being late at the meeting."

Cador nodded, bowing slightly. "I will give both of your horses a drink so that they may be well watered for the long journey back. It was an honor to have met one of Serenity's squires."

Haruka did not speak. She did not know how to respond. She only bolted quickly out of the stable and up the stairs to the castle. Haruka stopped in the torch lit corridor to catch her breath. That had not gone the way she had planned it. Still, she was confident Cador would not tell anyone, though he did not seem like the conspicuous type. Taking one last deep breath, Haruka raced up another round of stairs where she was directed by a guard to a nearby corridor where presumably there would be a crossroads and one path would lead down to the meeting hall. Haruka trudged down the richly adorned passageway, her feet almost dragging behind her. This was one meeting she was not looking forward to.

------

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2479**_

_**Ionian Plain, Saturn**_

The long grass of the meadow felt soft and cool against their bare feet as Finduilas and Michiru reclined across from one another in the gentle woodland glade. They had spent the time given to them in many different ways. First, they had run through the meadows, relishing in the feel of the long grass as if brushed lightly against their skin. Next, they leapt through forested slope nearby, awed at how truly good it felt to be alive, thriving in this natural habitat where beauty is the life of the vibrant green leaves and starry water of the streams. Finally, after swimming in the brook, the two had settled down in the glade, simply enjoying the nature of being. Birds sang around them and the fresh breeze carrying the smells and scents of a freshly dawned season.

Michiru sighed in contentment. There was no more fulfilling an experience than enjoying life for what it was: a beautiful piece of nature, untouched and uncorrupted. Her mother used to say of the sea: its power lay in its beauty and it beauty was life. Such is the way of nature. Of the green rustling of the trees. Of the wafting aroma of the honeysuckle and wildflowers flourishing just over the hedge grove above the hemlock bed. And of the calming lull of the trickling stream flowing steadily beyond the thicket. It was a paradise for all those willing to fall under the mystical whim of its wistful spell.

"It is in this season when I relish living on such a rich place as the Ionian Plain." Finduilas sighed as she stretched and folded her hands behind her head, clear blue gaze fixated upon the wiry violet clouds streaming across the lilac painted sky. Slowly her eyebrows arched in the all too familiar expression awe and puzzlement. "What do you believe that one is in the shape of?"

Michiru's cerulean gaze followed the small pale finger towards the purplish mass it indicated. She rested comfortably against the soft bed of green grass beneath her neck and back as she contemplated the fluffy wonder thoughtfully.

"Honestly." Michiru admitted cocking her head to one side as she tried to get a different view of the mass from another angle. "It has Siril's nose."

"I thought that too." Finduilas confessed with a small smile. "But the whole thing is too large to look anymore like him, though I will admit, his face is rather round."

Michiru giggled in agreement as Finduilas pointed to yet another cloud.

"That one looks like a rabbit!" She sat up excitedly and traced the outline of the loosely formed body with her forefinger. "See the pointy ears on his head?"

Michiru turned her head to the side curiously. "How do you know it is a he?"

Finduilas waved her hand back and forth dismissively. "I cannot tell, I only made that up."

"Oh." Michiru turned her gaze back to the sky and subconsciously sighed.

"What is wrong?" Finduilas asked rolling over to face her friend.

"Nothing." Michiru defended, but the narrowing of already piercingly clear eyes deterred her from arguing further.

"Then why did you sigh just now?" Finduilas asked scooting back as she sat up, the annoyed glare still upon her face.

Michiru sat up slowly. "The weather is favorable. It was out of contentment simply, that is all."

Finduilas shrugged, willing to let such a small thing go, at least for the time being. Standing up she changed the subject, gesturing with her arms energetically. "Well, what about a swim in the stream?"

Michiru shot up quickly. "I would love too!"

Finduilas suddenly sprang into a run. "Last one there has to set the table tonight at dinner!"

"Hey! You get back here!" Michiru protested as she chased up the slope after her. "Finduilas you cheat!"

Lucid laughter filled faded into the distance as they raced farther and farther away from the glade, their voices combined with the melodious songs of the birds and silent fluttering of butterfly wings.

------

_**City of Lionath, Pluto**_

_**Castle Leir**_

They had only been here for one half hour and already Haruka was sure this place was too big. Apparently, she had taken the wrong crossroad and was now hopelessly lost, having come so far in to the labyrinth of winding hallways that she found it impossible to retrace her steps back the way she had originally come. Haruka stopped, realizing she was in the middle of another crossroads, a four way stop with no real resolution. Agonizingly, she gauged the probability of an actual meeting chamber existing at the end of each passageway, but in the end all she did was blow a torrent aggravated air through her lips. This was impossible! She had single-handedly landed herself in this maze of false passages and dead end stops. No, not single-handedly…Damn that guard and his misguided advice!

Haruka took a deep breath as she forced herself to relax. She would find it eventually, whether or not Setsuna would forgive her for missing most of it was up for debate, however. Suddenly, a door not ten feet away from her creaked open. Haruka paused and held her breath in suspense awaiting some guard who would emerge and reprimand her for not being where she was supposed to be, but she was relieved when the source of all of the clamor was a girl not all that much older than herself. She wore a gown of deep scarlet which flowed down her lithe form and was restrained by a gold sash at her waist. Her hair was blonde held backing one long braid which ended just below her shoulders. Slowly, she shut the door and turned to meet the Uranian child's intrusive eyes.

At first, the presence of another startled her, but then as she studied the child before her garbed in a navy blue gambeson and the boots of a nobleman, her distress eased and a quiet smile formed on her face.

"Hello." The girl walked forward, crystal eyes gazing at Haruka kindly. "My name is Ancalime. What may I call you?"

Haruka swallowed, her suddenly dry making the effort to speak a trying one. "My name is Haruka of Estoduin."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand to the Uranian.

"The pleasure is all mine." Haruka bowed hastily enjoying the feel of that hand in her own, then she smiled easily as she stepped back. "I was wondering, could you direct me to the council chamber. I seem to be horribly lost."

"Of course." Ancalime replied with an elegant smile. "Follow me."

Haruka did not have to be told twice. The two walked side by side as they turned a corner into a different corridor. Haruka grimaced. This hallway did look familiar. Why could she not have found it again without having to require the assistance of this young girl? Ancalime noticed Haruka's observation of the hall and smiled.

"Does any of this look familiar?" She asked playfully.

Haruka nodded, aggravated with herself. "How is it that you know this place well enough not to get lost in it?"

"This place is my home." Ancalime corrected generously.

"You're father is Lord Ramsund?" Haruka asked, surprised.

"The very one!" Ancalime answered excitedly.

"I should have guessed." Haruka laughed lightly and rubbed the stiff collar away the back of her neck with a clammy hand.

"No, it is better as a surprise." Ancalime smiled up at her.

Haruka felt her heart pounding in her chest and her palms were collecting sweat steadily. "I will have to take your word for it."

Ancalime smiled beautifully as they reached a pair of double doors fashioned of dark wood. "This is the chamber where the meeting is being held, so this is where I will leave you now. I am sure you have better, more entrancing things to do than stand here and converse with me." Her smile became more contented as she stood silently still, her eyes locked with Haruka's who was staring at her, spellbound by the very sight of her. "Perhaps, I will see you again soon."

Haruka finally regained her ability to speak. "Perhaps and when we do, I will be looking forward to it."

Ancalime nodded a slight shade of pink coming to her cheeks as she stood up and laid an affectionate kiss on Haruka's cheek. "Goodbye, then."

Haruka sighed as color began to surface on her cheeks. "Goodbye."

With a small sigh, Ancalime of Lionath slipped away silently making her way back down the corridor they had just forded. Haruka stood perfectly still for a moment. Shakily, one hand came up to fell the cheek where that angel's lips had met it. It was warm and so was her skin. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest even at the thought of her. What was this she was feeling? Was there a name for it? Was it supposed to happen? Was there something wrong with her for feeling this way? Haruka did not know the answers to all of those questions and she was afraid to try. Numbly, she turned and opened one of the doors, entering the council chamber. Immediately upon entering the hall, a loud wave of tumultuous voices assaulted her ears.

"No! Seceding the lands in the east to Lord Dunvallo will not solve anything, only hasten the problem!"

"But he has ample force to hold the darkness at bay, at least until we have had time to muster all of our arms up against it."

"Yes, Cloghten. He will hold the darkness out and then when he had defeated then he will turn on us! Your borders are closest to his own, what say you if her were to become your eternal lord and master?!"

"Quiet your nonsense, Blederic! This must be a united affair!"

"Gentlemen, please! There is no need for argument, we are all peers of the immortal realm at this council!"

Haruka scanned the room for her mentor. Every lord and representative was trading insults, completely oblivious to her arrival. At the front of the room sat a round table where each noble had gathered. Finally, her keen eyes spotted her. Amidst the bedlam of bickering aristocrats sat Setsuna, leaning back in her seat, on hand covering her eyes tiredly as the royals continued to catapult verbal affronts back and forth between one another. Haruka scurried over to Setsuna's side and greeted her by clasping her shoulder understandingly. Setsuna's hand dropped from her eyes as she looked over and met Haruka's eyes.

"You are late." She stated calmly.

Haruka bowed her head sheepishly. "I lost my way in the corridors."

Setsuna gestured around the table to the bickering men. "You did not miss all that much."

"I am glad." Haruka replied as she took a seat next to the senshi of Pluto.

"I am not." Setsuna answered. "I would rather have had you lost than subject you to this."

One man finally stood up. His cloak was one which wrapped around his neck once, each opposite end clasped to the other shoulder, the amethyst garment covering the leather jerkin beneath it. It was a fashion Haruka was familiar with. She remembered Setsuna telling her once that it was the status style of dress worn by royals on Saturn. But why would a noble of Saturn be here? Haruka had thought the trouble was mainly concerning Pluto at this time, but maybe it had escalated passed the Outer rim and was now affecting the other outer planets. But if that was true then why were there no representatives from Uranus or Neptune here?

"Silence!" The man shouted and the table quieted. "We have come here is the best interest of the planets to protect this kingdom from another insurgence of darkness. Keeping the peace is our first priority here, not personal gain and not honoring old agreements and if any man would rather settle those worthless matters than be here then I will oblige them with a blade!"

The whole room went silent at his outburst. He sighed and dropped back into his seat. "Now, Lord Ramsund, please reassess to all those assembled the nature of the problem we confront here today."

"Certainly." A bearded man leaned forward, his arms crossed on the table in front of him. "In the far east, a massive incursion has begun. A force of darkness has been attacking the lands of Fernon, Brigath, and Ampuria. So far, all efforts to waylay the threat have failed drastically. I, myself sent a force to Calimi and all of the men in those details were brutally killed.

The man called Blederic leaned forward on his elbows on the table. "Well, perhaps your soldiers were simply no good."

Lord Ramsund's jaw clenched as he leaned back. "My eldest son was among them. I do not know what other extreme measures must be taken before this council fully grasps what it is dealing with, but we must act, decisively and united."

"All hail our hero, Duke Ramsund of Lionath for bringing this to our attention!" Blederic mocked sarcastically. "I did not come here to follow an Ampurian mediator into battle."

"Not even thirty years of age and you speak as though you are the eldest and wisest of us all!" Ramsund retorted bitterly. "I am an immortal, boy, a true immortal, not some young bastard thirty years in the making! I was born in the year 90 in a time when all worlds were immortal and pure and darkness was myth children told to scare one another. I fought in the Battle for the Imperial City on Uranus during the Civil war when your parents were not yet born. I fought as a knight on the Battlefield of Menasich, slaying my first dark traitor before your father even walked upright. I buried my eldest son, whom was twice your senior, in the ground only two weeks ago and you dare speak to me the way you do?! You are not a man yet, boy, and until you show some respect for your elders I, and those older than you among this council, will refuse to treat you as anything different!"

Blederic quieted and the ceremony went on. Lord Asclepiodotus, the Saturnarian member of this council, stood up tall. In one hand he held a piece of parchment which had some writing on it in letters Haruka could not read. In the other he held a quill poised for his signature.

"I believe in the ability of this council to protect this planet from the onslaught of evil that threatens it. That is why I sign this treaty." He bent over and leant his signature onto the paper. "Who is with me?"

Setsuna stood and signed the paper. Lord Ramsund stood and imparted his name and seal upon the aged parchment. Suddenly, there was a loud crashing noise from outside in the courtyard. A armored guard suddenly burst through the double doors. He fell to his knees, exhausted before Lord Ramsund.

"Turin?" Ramsund questioned as he recognized the sweating and disheveled form of his Captain of the guard.

"My lord, the darkness has come!" He shouted, struggling to breath and remain upright. "Dark soldiers have set upon the castle, they are here!"

The distant sound of clanging metal and breaking wood inundated the hall in loud oppressive sounds. The nobles leapt from their chairs. A few of them took to pushing the large round table forward towards the doors to act as a barrier between them and the encroaching evil outside. Lord Asclepiodotus pulled the sword from his belt with one hand and grabbed Ramsund's arm with the other.

"How did they find out?" He hissed. "This council and its origins were to be held in confidence."

"I took strict precautions." Ramsund argued pulling his arm away from the frenzied iron grip. "I do not know how they found out."

In the back of the room, Lord Blederic snuck to a side door and quietly slipped out of the hall, fleeing from the scene with the aid of a young boy Haruka had not noticed before. A stable boy. She did not have time to dwell on the boy's face however as a loud bang came at the double doors. They were trying to force them open. She reached to pull her own sword from its sheath, but strong arms restrained her and held her at bay.

"Let me go! I want to help!" Haruka yelled struggling wildly in Setsuna's arms.

Setsuna did not reply, she only held on tighter to her belligerent charge. She could not put Haruka in danger here. She was not ready yet for a full scale battle. The ruthless sentries of shadow would kill her out without a thought. But there was no time to think as the oaken barriers separating them from their enemies gave way with one more dreadful lurch and the black armored bodies of the soldiers set upon them. The first one of them clad in a frightful suit of ebony armor slammed through the hole left by the battering ram in the doors and sliced through the man called Turin and rendered him lifeless with little effort. Looking feverishly around, Setsuna caught sight of a small alcove, a pantry where numerous supplies and scrolls of parchment would be kept. Quickly, she rushed over to it and threw the small door open.

"Setsuna, put me down! I want to fight!" Haruka yelled, but her struggles were in vain as her mentor was both taller and much stronger than she was.

Setsuna threw her into the small alcove forcibly. Haruka scrambled up to her knees, kneeling with scattering jars and scrolls all around her. She had gotten up quickly enough to see the look of foreboding as it crossed Setsuna's face before she slammed the door and barricaded it hurriedly. She could hear the sounds coming from outside. They were horrible. Wood was being splintered and broken, limbs were being sliced and hacked away. Bodies were being mutilated. Clanging metal permeated the area as swords clashed. The ripping resonance as a blade carved straight through the chest and garments of a man. Haruka sat there and listened, worrying. She felt so helpless! Fellow nobles were dying out just beyond the other side of her little door and there was nothing she could do about it. What about the little girl she had met in the hall, what became of her? What of Lord Asclepiodotus of Saturn or his steward who had ushered them inside the city walls? What of Lord Ramsund? What if something happened to Setsuna, then where would she be? What if they killed her?

Haruka leaned back and lifted one booted foot, then with all of her might, she kicked at the door. It creaked, but did not give way. The sounds from outside were dying away and fleeing footsteps could be heard echoing back the way they had come. The silence was more terrifying than anything she had heard so far. What if they had killed everyone in the hall? What if she was the only one left? Haruka clenched her jaw as she kicked at the door to open.

It creaked, but nothing happened. Again her foot smashed into the splintering wood and this time it gave a little leeway, enough to through a crack separating the doorframe and the door itself. An orange glow radiated from the council chamber. The insurgents had set the room ablaze! Haruka kicked hard again at the door and this time it opened enough for her to wedge her way out. It was a tight fit and just as she was leaving the alcove her foot caught on the door frame and she spun around to hit the floor. It was not a hard fall though, for something had broken her fall. Haruka forced her shaking arms to push her up off from the floor. As she stood she grimaced as she caught sight of what had been her body's cushion.

Tain, the Saturnarian steward, was laying coldly on the floor. His head was turned to the side where a puddle of blood had pooled around his mouth and beneath his sliced neck, eyes so full of life only an hour before now dull and blank. She surveyed the room. A few guards lay dead, coldly strewn about where they had fallen to the floor. The tapestries on the walls were burning and the wooden table was alight with flame. Where was everyone else? She turned and took a frightful step back. Laying against the wall, held to the wood by a Bodkin spear, hung Lord Dunvallo; a river of blood staining his mouth and front in death. Haruka backed away hurriedly.

She stood again, but her knees were shaking and her body felt as though it were dying. She was short of breath and every instinct inside her was telling her to run away, but where would she run to? With the enemy still about there was no safety here. A noise made its way to her ears, the reverberation of a booted foot creaking atop a wooden board. Slowly, she turned around and came face to face with a tall, dark man. He was thickly built, a brute of bone and muscle towering over her in a foreboding suit of lamellar armor. In one hand he held a flanged mace and a menacing arming sword dripping blood down from the tip of its blade in the other.

He regarded her for a moment and then with a frightful roar he rushed forward, his mace poised to hit her. Haruka did not know what to do and there was not ample time to think, but before she could do anything she felt herself being pushed out of the way. Just as she hit the floor she watched as the blunt weapon hit Setsuna in her unarmored side. She gasped and raised her staff, striking the man several times before stabbing him through the throat with his own blade. As he fell she turned to face Haruka to make sure she was alright, but her remaining strength failed her. With a thud she fell to her knees on the floor, holding her side and breathing heavily.

"Setsuna!" Haruka yelled as she raced over to her.

Carefully, she slid to the side of her mentor as Setsuna, unable to kneel, fell back against the bloodstained floorboards. "Setsuna?!"

The Plutonian opened her garnet eyes and recognized Haruka. She managed a weak smile and opened her mouth to speak, but a horrible fit of coughing erupted in their place. A stream of blood lathered her chin and lips. She tried again to speak, but instead her eyes closed and her head fell back as she gave in to unconsciousness.

"Setsuna?!" Haruka cried vehemently. "Setsuna, please, wake up! Get up!"

Haruka leaned over her, tried to wake her, but it did not work. Finally, she sat back on her haunches and cried. Her hands buried themselves in the material of Setsuna's cloak draped over her shoulder as she leaned her head on her teacher's chest and sobbed. She was all alone, there was no escape, she was alone. She cried grief stricken tears for the darkness and all of its casualties, letting more every ounce of anguish which had festered quietly in her heart over the last year to overflow like a spring river. She sobbed bitterly for her mother, her poor lonely mother, loveless and neglected by her tyrant husband. She wept over the loss of her dearly loved and cherished friend Michiru whom she had not seen since that fateful day she had been taken from her the year before. She wailed at all of the time and effort she had put into her training. It had not been enough, she had not been ready to face the darkness on this day, she had failed her mentor, her friend. She shed tears for Setsuna lying here pale and cold beneath her, her heart faltering and there was nothing Haruka could do that would help her. She was not a doctor! She was not even a senshi yet, what good was she? There was not one thing she could have done to help if she had tried, those swine would have just thrown her aside, screaming and bleeding like everyone else. She felt so helpless, so alone.

Haruka sniveled and shivered as the flames burned all around her. She did not care what was happening all around her she did not care anymore if the flames took her and burned her to ashes and this place along with it. She did not care. In this deep and troubled outpost of death, massacre, and death nothing mattered. Nothing. She, Haruka of the Uranian house of Tenoh, was nothing in this world of cruelty and death, but a hapless body to be pushed and tortured till the end of her days. Laying there weeping into Setsuna's icy shoulder, she was certain that was all pitiless fate had in store for her in this cursed and misguided life of hers.

------

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2479**_

_**Ionian Plain, Saturn**_

_**Jade's House**_

It was evening. Jade had brought the girls home on the back of his great steed, Amulius, back to the cabin just as the sky was beginning to darken over the horizon on his way back from the village. Siril and Elboron had returned earlier with a small deer. Grimhild had been extremely pleased. She had skinned and cleaned the creature and its meat was not smoking over a low fire in the foreyard.

"Jade! How many times must I tell you to leave the roast alone before the table is set!" Grimhild smacked her husband's hands away from the dish of sticky meat she had ladled with sauce and set on the table. "You are as bad as the children."

"Papa is worse, I think." Finduilas quipped setting a bowl of steaming potatoes on the table next to the roast.

Siril laughed, but he was not quick enough to evade his father's tickling fingers as he grabbed him and subjected him to a vengeful round of mirthful torture. Elboron walked in carrying a bowl of cabbage and onions stewed in a sauce of cheese. This night was a night of celebration so every delectable favorite of the family's palate had been prepared for the evening meal. Michiru helped to carry the last tray of Emplumeus, a traditional Saturnarian pastry served only on holidays, to the table and then sat down. Almost everything was prepared. Only the bread had yet to be pulled from the oven before the meal could start. Siril whimpered in hunger as he eyed the tempting bowl of cabbage across from him, endurance was not one of his persevering qualities.

"Careful, Siril." Finduilas chided. "Mama will slap you for soiling her table with so much drool."

"At least he is not foaming at the mouth like you, little sister, you ravenous thing." Elboron smirked taking his seat in between Michiru and his little brother. "You should behave more in a manner befitting a lady, like Michiru is."

Elboron winked and Michiru blushed at the compliment, adverting her eyes to the red napkin folded on the left side of her empty plate. Finduilas stuck her tongue out in retaliation as Siril, irritated for being called out before the group, lunged and pulled on his sister's flaxen hair while she screeched and pulled on his ear sharply. Michiru sat silently monitoring the situation uncomfortably while Elboron stood up and attempted to play arbiter between the two squabbling siblings. Jade, in high spirits since his trip that morning, sat back languidly and put his arms behind his head. Life was good.

"Finduilas let go of your brother!" Grimhild reprimanded sternly as she entered with a plate of freshly sliced bread.

The two children let go of one another grudgingly. Retribution would come and it would be swift, if just had to happen when their mother was not looking.

"How can you behave so calmly when your son and daughter are squabbling like birds over a worm?" Grimhild asked, frustrated, setting the bread down and then taking her seat.

"T'is natural for siblings to fight with one another." Jade replied shrugging his shoulders casually.

"So is it for animals, that does not mean you should so loosely tolerate it!" Grimhild argued.

"True, but just because I tolerate it does not mean you should rebuke it." Jade counseled. "It is healthy for them to fight at least a small amount daily."

"You are hopeless." Grimhild shook her head.

"If only to please you dearest." Jade smiled charmingly at her. "Now, let us begin the feast." He turned to his children. "Siril, tell me, what is so significant about this day that we feel compelled to celebrate it?"

Finduilas raised her hand. She always knew the answer. Siril fretted and his face contorted into several different expressions of bemusement as he thought. Aggravated at his sister's quick wit, he reached over, grabbed her hand and pulled it down.

"Papa asked me!" Siril whined.

"But do not know the answer I do!" Finduilas retorted as her hand flew back up into the air like a flag.

Jade sat uneasily as his wife's burning glare pierced his side. There had to be a way to remedy the situation and dig him out of the hole he had fallen into. Quickly, looking for an escape, he eyes settled on his Neptunian charge and he smiled.

"Michiru." Jade startled her out of her reviver. "Do you know why this holiday is celebrated all across the galaxy on this day?"

Michiru nodded, remembering what her tutors on Neptune had taught her, and swallowed before finding her voice. "It is the anniversary of the end of the Civil war between the planets in 893."

"Excellent!" Jade exclaimed excitedly. "Yes, my children, it was on this very day thousands of years ago when the great Interplanetary war ended and the first darkness was pushed away. It was a time of great heroes, brave, proud kings and legendary loves which caused worlds to bend in their wake. It was a golden age, a wonderful age of tradition and culture. If only we could revisit it. If only I could take you, dear children, back to the time of my youth so you could experience the world before it changed. Though the changes are for the better, we have a glorious past that must never be forgotten or waylaid lest it be repeated. What else happened on this day?"

Finduilas raised her hand and this time her father motioned to her to speak. "Regelle Tenoh of Uranus was born in 579."

"Yes, who could forget the birth of one of Serenity's greatest guardians." Jade's face became nostalgic as he lost himself in thought. "The knights were giants, great figures who were shaped and then came to later mold the times into the ones we live in. I wish you could have known them. Wise, lighthearted Entarais, brave Regelle, honorable Anna, the great archer Lucretia, stunning Alexandria, the genius Orion, and Sinis who's service to the queen helped to build the very kingdom he would later betray her to destroy. They were magnificent. Since their deaths there has been nothing but their enduring legends which have faded into myths to tell their tales. Their own names are so shrouded in myth now that people wonder if they really, truly did live at all, but they lived…they really lived. Yes, I wish you could have known them."

He retreated for a moment into his thoughts. So many memories, he had so many memories of places, people, and a way of life which were now nothing more than recollections lost to time. Michiru often wondered how the Plutonians could stand to be immortal, knowing that everyone they would ever encounter outside of their own world would perish and leave them behind after only a few short years. It seemed unfathomable to her. Elboron leaned forward on his elbows watching his father from where he sat across the table.

"Father?" He asked concerned. "Are you alright?"

Jade seemed to wake up almost abruptly from his musings. "I am doing splendidly, it is only that this day brings back many memories for me, that is all. Dig in children."

No one had to tell them twice. Siril lunged for the bowl of cheesy cabbage and piled his plate with it. Grimhild stood and began to carve up the roast carefully as Finduilas pulled a slice from the bread plate and passed it on. Michiru took the bread plate as it was handed to her, took a small slice of bread from the corner edge and turned to pass the plate to Elboron, but when she spun around to him, she almost dropped the plate from her hands. He was sitting leaning his tan chin on his hand and though his mouth was covered by the heel of his hand, his deep amethyst eyes were smiling at her. As she blushed and handed him the plate, his smile widened into that of a thankful grin.

"Ah, thank you!" he said as he pulled a piece of bread from the plate then turned away from her to pass it the other direction.

Michiru smiled reservedly to herself and sighed silently. Elboron was fourteen, the age when most boys on Saturn were considered men. He was handsome and kind, though his manners did sometimes need a little work, but the same was true for all young men. For some reason, Michiru could not understand, he made her uncomfortable when she was around him. It was as if she could never concentrate and her thoughts would stray absently from her head in droves of confusion, leaving her heart beating in insistent turmoil. It was as though she both enjoyed and cursed his company. She enjoyed spending time with him, but at the same time, his presence caused feelings within her that she had no conception of and was unsure of how to handle.

Michiru straightened her posture as the cheesy cabbage was handed to her. She wrinkled her nose up at the foamy brew, it was not to her liking. As she handed the bowl to Elboron, however, she forgot that the look was on her face so when he saw it his grin split to accommodate a racing stream of laughter.

"Whatever is the matter?" Grimhild asked her son tersely.

His laughter slowed as he passed the dish on. "Just a joke Michiru told me. She is quite amusing when she chooses to be."

Grimhild turned away and Michiru stiffened, her cheeks lit afire from the older boy's laughter. He reached over and placed his hand comfortingly over her own on the table, smiling, but sincerely now.

"Do not worry." He comforted. "I do not care all that much for the disgusting concoction either. I am sorry if my laughter offended you, it was not intended to do so. The last thing I would want to do would be to hurt you."

The sincerity and the way he said it surprised Michiru, but she smiled past the astonishment. "Thank you."

Elboron nodded warmly as he let go of her hand. She sighed almost inaudibly, but Jade had noticed it. He had seen the stress of not knowing in those features, had recognized the turmoil within her though he could not determine its source. Jade leaned back languidly in his seat as he watched as Michiru was handed a slice of meat from his wife. He resolved to himself, he would watch her closely to determine the source of her distress at length. If it truly was a real thing, he would find it, all it would take was time and that was something he had no shortage of.

------

_**City of Lionath, Pluto**_

_**Castle Leir**_

The fires had been put out and the dead were in the process of being buried. The smoke and fire damaged areas of the castle were already in the process of being repaired. If nothing else could be said for the immortal race, they were masters of picking up the pieces after a disaster and continuing to go on living. Lord Asclepiodotus had arrived briskly at Haruka's side as the flames were receding. Setsuna was not dead, but precariously wounded. They had sent all the way to Estoduin for a doctor named Seamus to attend to her. He was an immortal, thousands of years old and it was said that he was so wise he could cure any ailment or bind any wound. Haruka hoped and prayed he was capable of such things, if not she would be left without a teacher and he without his life.

Lord Ramsund had dragged her away from Setsuna so that the doctor could tend to her. He had guided her away to a high tower which over looked the city and the entire northern countryside passed its walls, but the view had not lessened her anxiety, only made her stomach churn and her body ache. The old nobleman had thought it best to leave her by herself up in the tower to overlook the grounds, thinking perhaps the aerial image of the various shops, homes, and guilds would take her mind off of the frightful occurrences of the night. Listlessly, Haruka settled herself on the cushioned ledge by the window. Carefully, she pulled back the grated wooden shutter and laid her head on the abandoned sill. The grounds were dark and precious few lamps continued to burn in the homes and tenements hundreds of feet below her. A merchant on a donkey, carrying a lofty load of sticks that widened the sides of the animal from a distance, meandered through the square along with a few estranged villagers.

The cool night breeze caressed her face while the bright light of the moon illuminated her tan features and caused the teal in her blue green eyes to sparkle as though they were some type of rare expensive stone. A mist had settled over the distant countryside, shrouding the dark masses of forest and making it indistinguishable from the farm land which surrounded it. This was a land of timeless ageless wonder. This castle and its walls had been here long before the moon was even settled and yet she felt no awe at being there at all. All she felt was numbness and worry for Setsuna's well being.

An hour passed, an hour of stagnate waiting, with no word of her mistress. Quietly, Haruka stood and began pacing the circle of the tower floor, her thoughts jumbled like knots of tangled rope in her head. Where were the messengers? Why had they not come to tell her what had become of Setsuna yet? Was she alright? Had she perished and no one had told her? It was maddening! It was the Tower of Zenith she had been thrust up into. This cold dank outpost of the Castle Leir was one of the city's oldest buildings. Originally, the tower had stood on its own, with what would become the main castle building being added on later over the course of several centuries. It's beauty was said to dwarf that of any castle or palace anywhere else in the Sol system, even of those royal residences on the moon. Normally, Haruka would find herself held captive by such majesty so alive in history which has always retained a mastery of being, but not on this night. On this night her mind could not care less if this solemn stone tribute to the immortality of it's builders was a butcher's shithouse.

Haruka was tired. The systematic throbbing ache which was incessantly tugging her troubled consciousness towards the brink of sleep informed her of that fact. But there would be no sleep for her here, no sway. Smooth eyelids closed over swirling teal pools enticing two liquid streams to issue from the cistern down the silky edifice of tan skin. It had been a trying evening with nothing less than the estranged and extraordinary taking precedence over the night. She could not remember ever feeling this alone. A cold draft of wind soared up and assaulted her face as she leaned it limply against her arms, swaying her short sandy locks disrespectfully as a small child would tussle and jostle about a rag doll their parents had given then which they had never truly wanted to begin with. A slight touch came at her shoulder. Normally, being touched in such a way would not have scared her, but as previously implied if not dually noted, this night was different.

Haruka spun around quickly expecting to see Lord Asclepiodotus or in the very least a castle servant, but instead her eyes fell upon a face of her age and eyes of pure crystal and serenity. Neither one of them wasted time with ceremonious greetings this time. Instead, Ancalime fell forward and engulfed Haruka in an affectionate hug. The small Uranian was startled at first, but returned the embrace warm heartedly. It felt good to finally have a friend her own age again. In her early years, Haruka had largely been a loner and Michiru had been her first real friend and though she missed her, she could not repulse the fact that she need a friend she could hold and take comfort in and, for now at least, Michiru was not that person. She was too far away now to be that person. Taking on a new friend, who would dare prosecute her for it? Such is the way with children that they need companionship to survive in so cruel as world as our own.

In the looming night, Haruka snuggled into the crook of the petite girl's neck and pressed her tighter against her. This was what she needed. A friend who was there, not only in spirit but also in substance. A form of existence she could touch and hold, to reassure her that there was more for her in this life than death, loss, and empty far off promises. The tension in her muscles eased as she relaxed into the other's soft shoulder, feeling exhausted both in heart and body all at once. Ancalime pulled away and looked at her, a strong proclamation of worry holding back its own tears hidden in those, the clearest of all eyes.

Haruka took a deep steadying breath for she too had worried for the well being of the other, though never would she admit it publicly. Tearing her eyes away from Ancalime, Haruka focused on the distant roofs forming the grey mosaic image of the city beneath them. Anacalime sniffed and looked down nervously at where her hands were resting in her lap.

"I needed to see you were alright." She said, her eyes darting bravely back up to look over Haruka's features, in detail now, checking for any visible injury or abrasion.

Haruka focused on some faraway place in the deep navy of the sky.

"I'm fine." She lied.

Ancalime's eyes narrowed. "You lie."

Haruka's jaw clenched unconsciously. "Do you know me so well now that you can tell whether or not I'm telling the truth?"

"No." Ancalime replied. "But no one, no matter how strong they are, can live through all of the night's activities without being marked in someway. You are a powerful presence, Haruka, but not sturdy enough to weather the darkness that has become such a threat to us all now."

Haruka's eyes closed as she sighed, pinching the headache away from where it was tormenting the bridge of her nose. "Setsuna and the council tried, but almost everyone died."

Ancalime swallowed the dry lump in her throat, knowing she was treading on uneven ground. "How does she fare, your teacher?"

Haruka's tone took on a bitter undertone for a minute before she caught it and quelled it. She could not let herself become angry with this girl, she would not. "She was lying unconscious and bleeding on the council chamber floor so…I…I could not tell you. No one has informed me of her current condition."

"I am sorry." Ancalime admitted sincerely. "I know she must mean a great deal to you."

"Oh, more than that." Haruka turned to her, a fevered strength to her eyes, fatigued though they were. "She is my teacher, my friend, and almost as close as any woman who could call herself a mother. She is the one thing I know that is true in this world, the one person I thought I would always be able to count upon, but tonight has shattered such certainties with a vengeance only known by the utmost evil."

Ancalime reached up tenderly, slowly drawing pale fingers across one of Haruka's tan cheeks. "I know not what this life holds for you and I can never claim to understand all of the trials you have already faced, but I know one fact which is the truest of all: Hope, though illusive and candid at times, never betrays us if we choose to nurture it. I believe that, Haruka. I believe that you are destined for greater things and that all you must do is believe in your own strength to fulfill them."

Haruka was speechless. Her mind aimlessly grappled for something appropriate to say, but no words came. Instead, she leaned forward and captured the willing Saturnarian in a grateful embrace. Her heart swelled with hope as well as the emergence of this new feeling she could not understand, but welcomed nonetheless. As the stars shone through the open window beside them, it became apparent to all bodiless souls that for one graceful night, there existed no one else in the whole of the Universe besides the two of them. Haruka sighed tiredly, waning on the precipice of peace. Ancalime rubbed her back soothingly.

"You are safe now." She spoke calmingly. "You need to try and get some sleep."

Haruka's eyelids were already drooping and within minutes the dark, angry world she had been grieved by was smothered by another, relieving veil of black. From then on, there was nothing more than a comfortable refuge of shadow and dust.

------

_**Ionian Plain, Saturn**_

_**Jade's House**_

The arrow was drawn back to the curve line of the elegant neck where it's give ended at the junction of a delicate chin. Michiru had done this a hundred times, she knew what she was doing, knew what her goal was.

"Alright." Jade instructed halfheartedly, knowing the well practiced routine as well as the likely result. "And release."

Thin fingers relinquished their grip on the bowstring and the arrow sang through the air, striking expertly in the knock of the chosen tree.

"Excellent!" Jade exclaimed.

Michiru bowed, a modest red glow creeping up her cheeks. "Thank you, sir."

"Do not call me sir, it makes me sound frightfully old." Jade grimaced, though he was an immortal well on in age, he still thought of himself as a child at heart. "Call me Jade."

"Yes, si…I mean Jade." Michiru replied with a sheepish smile.

"Not really a challenge for you, eh girl? No, no we need to find something, an activity worthy of your skills." Jade contemplated silently, then as the light of an idea flashed on in his head. " I have it!"

Michiru jumped as Jade clasped her shoulder as he led her alongside him through the trees. "First, we will do one hundred push ups, then two hundred sit ups, then a three mile run. Yes! It will be one of the greatest challenges of your life to date!"

Michiru groaned inaudibly. She would have settled for a stern reprimand rather than a ladling on of all of the extra work. But they were leaving soon and she would have to be at her best to begin her the elemental training. The prospect worried her. What if she failed? What if she could not muster the strength to harness her power? What if she was not powerful enough? What if she did not have what it takes? What then? Michiru took a deep, steadying breath in Jade's embrace. If she was to succeed, then it would take a great deal more out of her than all of this excess exercise combined, but she was determined. The safety of Serenity's kingdom, of their planets and peoples depended on her ability to do this. She would not and could not fail them. And as the day calmed and that hard practice continued, Michiru knew she would not.

------

_**City of Lionath, Pluto**_

_**Castle Leir**_

They had fallen asleep together, snuggly curled within the loose comfort of each other's arms as children sometimes do. A few times in the night, Haruka had awoken, but each time she only snuggled closer to her younger friend and fell back through the comforting hole which allowed her to escape the dim truth of the world. Lord Ramsund had woken them just as the sun was peering anxiously over the outer wall's arches. He told Haruka that because of his physician's long and tedious work throughout the night, Setsuna would recover, thank the Gods. Ancalime left in order to tend to whatever other wounded still needed tending to. Lord Ramsund led Haruka down a long stone corridor to Setsuna's chamber. Just as the immortal noble's hand clasped for the brass door handle, Haruka shrank away and turned nearest towards the wall.

"What is the matter, child?" Ramsund asked turning towards her.

Haruka shook her head as moist teal eyes focused on the tapestry hanging on the wall before her. She tried to form words in her mouth, but the building feeling of dread of what she would find in that room muted all attempts. Ramsund swallowed as he watched Haruka's shoulders lift and fill with small shuddering breaths, not enough to signal crying but an emotional turmoil brewing deep beneath the tan exterior.

He frowned sympathetically. "Come, child, we must not fear now. We have come too far to acknowledge cowardice when it lives so close to what we must do. What we know has to be done."

Haruka sniffled and nodded numbly. Ramsund's hand wrapped around the door knob and pushed the heavy oaken door open with little effort. He ushered Haruka ahead of him silently and shut the door behind her once she was in the room with a resounding creak. The young Uranian swallowed and took one stiff step forward toward the bed and the still form lying there beneath the neat silken sheets, wallowing in shallow breaths and sticky droplets of sweat. Setsuna was asleep, the slight rising and falling of her chest being the only indication at all that the slumber was indeed that instead of an artful deception of death. The once dark coffee colored skin was pale and ashen with wear and peril. Gently, Haruka moved one small hand to rest on the cusp of that sunken brow. Setsuna's forehead was warm, a clear sign of fever. It was a good sign somewhat lending some reassuring truth to the fact that the Plutonian senshi was healing quickly from her wounds. Still a high fever was not good.

A silver tear slide down a smooth tan cheek and landed on the feather pillow beside Setsuna's head.

"I am sorry, Setsuna." Haruka bit her lip to hold back the clenching tightening of her throat and the inevitable straining of her voice. "If only I had not come out of the pantry. If only I had been paying attention…If only you had not tried to save me…it would have been me instead of you," Haruka paused to take a deep steadying breath as the fingers of one hand balled into a fist around the sheets of the bed she was leaning over. "And I would have rather the gods had punished me in that way…not you."

Setsuna had been washed and her wounds cleaned, but still a stubborn smear of dried blood clung to the corner of her mouth which meant the internal bleeding had stopped only a short while ago. She had been dressed in a _kamis_, a white cotton shirt which, when standing, would stretch to a figures ankles often held to their waist by a sash of satin. It was a garment worn by almost everyone on Pluto, but the quality of the cotton or material would show the rank of the wearer. Setsuna's _kamis_ was embroidered in golden thread, a simple sign of who she was. Haruka traced the path of one vine of ample gold down along the sleeve on her mentor's arm as yet another tear blazed its own path down her face. It was her fault this had happened and she knew it. Suddenly, Haruka knelt down and laid her head on the bed, violent sobs she had never known shaking her body as she wept.

Haruka had never, in her short life, cried more than a few times, but this was by far the worst. Normally, she excelled at hiding her emotions from others. Even at such a young age, she was a master in the art of emotional deception. But now all of it came back to the foreground, breaking like stormy waves against the walls of her chest and body causing her to shutter uncontrollably. What had she done? How had she managed to find herself in the middle of all of this? She had not been paying attention, not minding her surroundings when the man had come running out at her. She was a senshi in training, had not Setsuna taught her how to wield a sword? There was one nearby in the hand of a dead guardsman, why had she not taken it up to defend herself? When that soldier of darkness had set upon her snarling and slashing like some frightful animal, it had frightened her. She would never openly admit it, but it had.

Haruka had never before fought in a battle or killed a man before. She had never been on the battlefield. Had not known the toll of fighting nor the ambivalence which prevails and hangs over everything which is done. Had never mastered the cold dexterity of surviving in a situation where courage dictates life and fear condemns to death. All she knew was how to pick up a sword and wound, not kill, nor win. She remembered that moment, dreadfully now. In a second's instant, she was rushed by the terrible enemy with no time to use a blade or even think to use one. Her mind was not yet the quick. With practice though, one day it would be. The deathly weapon had been poised to strike her and instead it had struck the only one courageous enough to act: Setsuna.

Haruka lifted her head from the bed and sniffled as the tide of overwhelming waves retreated back into the composed dam she had constructed for them. "Do not worry, my teacher, next time I will be ready. I will be the one continue the fight." She reached over and grasped one of Setsuna's hands gently between two of her own reverently as a child tending to a sick mother. "Of that, I assure you I will do. I won't ever let them hurt you again. I swear to you I won't."

Setsuna's previously limp hand suddenly gave forth effort and squeezed Haruka's hand through the haze of unconsciousness which still held her as its captive. Then, just as easily it relaxed again, becoming cold and Haruka felt a mixture of fear and pain so great that she bolted upright.

"Setsuna?" She whispered feverently. "Can you hear me? Setsuna!"

But the elder senshi did not respond. Gripped in a vice of icy fear, Haruka ran from the room to fetch a palace healer, someone anyone to help her, leaving the door to smack against the stone of the walls noisily as she fled.

--------

The healers had arrived within minutes with Haruka in toe, telling them in words too swift and jumbled what had happened. She was ushered out into the corridor and asked to wait until called for. The young Uranian was too high strung to sit still. She paced hastily to and fro across the smooth marble of the floor. She could not take not being in there. She wanted to know what was going on. How could they just throw her out like that? How?! Haruka sighed. Brooding over the issue would not solve the problem. She needed to get her mind off of the current situation for a few minutes so she could cool down some. Solemnly, she raised her gaze to the tapestries covering the walls. Faces of legendary figures of myth and history stared down at her, their intricately woven eyes seeming to connect with hers no matter where she was in the hall.

One she recognized, had to do with the knights. Frozen in time she saw Anna riding astride her great bay mare with Lucretia and Alexandria at her side. Behind them was Orion and Sinis…the one who had betrayed his comrades to their doom, thrown against a great scarlet sky. The colors of their faces and garments had faded over time and the edges of the massive work were fraying with gold. As was always the case in these depictions, Regelle and Entarais headed the group. Noble Entarais and honorable Regelle, the two souls who had shaped the countries of Neptune and Uranus into the nations they were now. Next rode Anna the strong warrior princess of Jupiter, two double edged swords strapped to her back shrouded mostly from view by an emerald cloak and leather armor.

Beside her, competing for the position of second in the lead, was Lucretia's great black steed, Scarto. Lucretia, draped in the blood red clothing of her country, rode expertly at Anna's side. Beneath her on the horse, there was no saddle for the Marians believed that the ultimate achievement in horsemanship was to be able ride and control a horse without the aide of riding gear. Strapped to her back was a dark quiver filled with a slew of burgundy fletched arrows. In one hand rested a handful of ebony mane while in the other was gripped a composite bow.

Alexandria was beside her astride the shorter, lighter boned Hasfalof, a pale blonde mare. She was draped in gold satins and silks. Such attire was rare now for the warriors of Venus, but Alexandria had lived during the Golden Age of Venus when the country had been free of the scars it carried now. In one hand she carried a short sword while strapped to her jeweled belt, in full view, were two silver hilted daggers and a sickle sword studded with gems.

Behind her rode Orion the genius prince of Mercury. He was clad head to toe in blues of all different shades. His outer robe was a classic example of the _aba_, a great flowing garment which goes down to the knees and is lined with linen and wool. It had once been the garment of royalty on Mercury, but now it was only a reminder of the ancient age in which it had been worn. Next was Sinis, once known as the strong and now remembered as the betrayer. His attire showed his status in history. His leather armor was black, a deep shade of noir which took no shine from the orange sun above. His cloak, that of a Saturnarian nobleman was torn and had been sewn a shade darker than it would ever have been worn. His face was menacing and the circles around his eyes were slight red rims, a warning to the evil hiding within the man. The black horse he was riding on leapt forward ill-temperedly, its hind legs being the only thing holding it up from the woven ground.

The great figures had been woven into the looming tapestry laden fully with artistic representation and freedom. Never would they have looked as they were shown when entering battle or riding out into one. Haruka knew that much, but what she did not know for sure was were these particular knights real or were their stories largely a work of fiction? The age they lived in seemed so long ago and no one, but the stoic Plutonians, who admit very little on the topic of any subject; still lived to speak of such a time. The hottest debate surrounding them was not whether or not they had lived, but _how _the original knights had lived. Were their exploits and personal histories merely stories perpetuated to give a sense of united personal history to the newly formed Moon Kingdom much like a myth would be used by a newly emerged civilization? Or were their legends all true facts simply told and retold because they were good stories? Haruka did not know.

Setsuna had once told her that the Knights were so important because they had been the first united group of warriors to voluntarily dedicate themselves to the protection of Serenity and her family. In this way, they helped unite the loosely held together Moon kingdom by threads of loyalty looped through the hearts of the people of every planet. Through association, the people were drawn to the crown and towards unanimity amongst their planets because of their connection with the beloved heroes of their own countries. The feeling of nationalism had been unexpected, especially by Serenity. Never had she dreamed so small an act could bring about such massive change in the hearts of her people, but it had. Over the years of course, the feeling had been stamped upon and cast aside as newer generations began to revive old regional and national rivalries between the planets.

Since the downfall of the knights, it had become a jumbled mess, leaving the queen and her family in greater danger still…without guardians to protect them. That had been when Serenity had asked Setsuna, who had been taught as a child by the wise and clever Entarais, to form the Senshi, a unique unit designed to guard the queen and her daughter from harm and henceforth ensure the preservation of the Moon and its kingdom. It was decided early on that the young senshi potentials should come from every planet, even from the bloodlines of the original knights if it was possible. This would perpetuate a strong feeling of nationalism again. The one obstacle, however, was that of the star seeds.

The original knights had star seeds ingrained with a special, vibrant type of energy which, to certain degree, is common for the royal bloodlines of the planets, but which was much higher than has ever been encountered before in another living being. These crystals were to be given a special name to distinguish them from all others and Serenity deemed them the Sailor Crystals at Entarais's humorous suggestion. Seeking out individuals born with these crystals became the main task of the knights during the peaceful years. It was thought that every knight should be held subject to the power of their crystals, so that only individuals who had them could be accepted and trained to serve their queen. That had been Serenity's method in choosing the senshi. She had consulted a seer who revealed the identities of the young senshi potentials to her. Haruka was such a potential.

In a way, she had been hand selected by fate to do this task, to follow this life. _The Guardian Cosmos must have a twisted sense of humor_, Haruka thought scowling at the invisible hand which had molded her destiny without her permission, imagining that he and all of the other safe souls residing in the Galaxy Cauldron were smiling and laughing at her cruelly.

Setsuna had explained the reasons to her once when she had asked why it mattered who they chose to serve the queen. They needed strong individuals, Setsuna had said, who could both protect their queen and their homelands from the ever present darkness and from each other's respective governments. It was also hoped, that the chosen individuals would be able to save their own planets from corruption within. Such conflicts in the past, such as the one which had led up to the Interplanetary Civil war, were sorely regarded as costly in the manner of life and damaging to the peaceful future of a united Moon Kingdom. In addition to being warriors, they would serve as diplomats to and, if born of the direct royal line, as rulers of their planets cementing an alliance forever between the united planets. Haruka would one day be such a soldier senshi, but she was not ready yet.

A senshi child would be taken from every planet, everyone except…Saturn. Sinis's stock, his blood was not to be tolerated so close to Serenity again, fearing a reoccurrence of an event such as the Massacre at Lundanium in 1348. They had fallen from grace. But it had been prophesized by the royal seer that there was to be born a child, a descendant of Sinis with the crystal of a senshi who, though she would not directly serve the queen, would be subject to her whim one day. It was also foreseen that her coming to the capital on the moon would bring about an end, not just an end to the era, but an end to the world as they knew it. Her awakening would mean silence, black and deathly evil silence which would bring about the breaking of peace like stone upon glass. For now though, it was Setsuna's task to ensure her coming was waylaid. One day, Setsuna had told her, she too would be charged with the task of keeping Saturn at bay.

Haruka had not understood at first. Why fear a child? Even one younger than herself? But when she had first begun her elemental training, then she understood. It had been almost overwhelming. Though she had not transformed, for she was not able to yet, the feeling of the intense golden wave as it washed over and engulfed her in its radiance had been almost too much to take. That first time she had harnessed the versatile power of the wind, the first time she had felt its sheer strength flowing through her, she had known why…why a kingdom so great would fear a child so small.

The door at the far end of the corridor creaked open slowly, drawing Haruka out of her thoughts and to the man emerging from the chamber. A tall, fair man appeared. His short dark hair was covered by a white cap and he was dressed in the traditional _kamis_ and a blue over robe tied to his waste by a amethyst sash which signified his status as a palace healer. With one hand he pinched the bridge of his nose and motioned with the other for Haruka to come over by him. Anxiously, she bounded towards him.

He let his hand drop from the bridge of his nose and turned to face her. "Your teacher will be fine. A dramatic and sudden drop in body temperature was the problem, but she is resting now. She should be well enough to travel within the next few days."

"Thank you, sir." Haruka said, sighing in relief as a flood of tension suddenly left her.

"Still." He continued in a monotone presence akin to that a stern teacher would use. "I think it best if not visit her again today. She needs her rest and you do too."

Haruka was indignant. "I woke up only a few short hours ago-"

"After an even shorter night of strained sleep." The doctor cut her off, he was adamant, she would sleep even if he had to play this silly little game to get the end he wanted.

"I am not tired!" Haruka shot back with firm resistance.

"I do not care if you are tired or not you are going to sleep or else I am going to-"

"That's enough!" A deep voice yelled from the opposite direction of the corridor.

Both startled parties turned to see Lord Asclepiodotus walking firmly towards them. "What is this rabble! You have cause for argument?! If either one of you truly does then state your peace right now?!"

Haruka stood silent, not wanting to infuriate the man more. The healer looked frustrated like he actually did want to speak, but nothing was said. Instead the angry man, looking so small in the shadow of the tall lord, shrank away and took on a manner of silent suffering.

"Well?" Lord Asclepiodotus pushed, staring from one to the other.

Haruka finally found the courage to speak. "Nothing, sir."

"Yes." The healer supplied grudgingly. "A trifle disagreement, over a trifle only."

"Was it?" Lord Asclepiodotus questioned, his voice still stern. "Well if that is all, I think it is about time you returned to your post, Shrouder."

"Yes, my lord." The healer bowed lowly, turned on his heel and was gone, sent like a scurrying rat back to its hole.

"And as for you." The tall lord turned to Haruka and studied her for a moment. His angry demeanor melted away to one slightly less stern as thoughts raced through his head, unbidden. Finally, the tension in his armored shoulders relaxed and he spoke. "Come with me."

Haruka swallowed in surprise, but did not falter at the command. She knew when to obey and when to defy, the instinct was almost completely mastered by now. They walked at a brisk pace back down the way Asclepiodotus had come down a maze of corridors Haruka had not yet seen before nor believed she would ever remember after this hurried journey ended at whatever destination which was chosen. Tapestries, some old and almost aged dull without color others new and vibrant with shades of every unique variation flying by as they plodded on, the ancient figures looming over them like shadows over an unwavering pond almost as constant reminders of a standard to live up to, of a new goal to always be reached and overcome. Gazing up into the dark recesses of all of those fathomless eyes, Haruka felt small and cold like an insect stark and out of place in a world that was too large for it to comprehend.

The last of the corridors wound out into an open walkway, its eastern side facing the castle gardens where the midday sun was brightly pouring in. Also on that side sat busts of famous figures and soldiers from the past. Haruka recognized some of them. One was of King Elieon, one of the first kings of the Kingdom. The second after him was of the man who would one day become his son-in-law and the future king of the moon, King Castor Oenomaus, otherwise known as the great and valiant prince Berosus. Another was of Theseus, an adventurous and legendary prince of Jupiter long since dead. Haruka felt her jaw slacken as she recognized the last of the sculpted men. The short hair, the wiry beard he had kept well groomed in his earlier years with the upper half of his body clad in the bronze patterned armor of their countrymen…it was him. King Aegelle of Uranus the patron of peaceful wisdom and her grandfather. He was a great man, or at least that was what her mother had told her about him. There were statues of him all around the Imperial city on Uranus. He had died before her time, but she did not doubt the far reaching reality of his deeds.

Haruka was so caught up in realizing the vision that she did not notice that Asclepiodotus had stopped walking and collided with the solid steel of his armored back. She stumbled back a bit and was fine with no real harm done. Asclepiodotus tried his best to hold back a smile, _The girl is just like her mother_.

"Do you recognize him at all?" Asclepiodotus nodded his head to the bust of the Uranian king.

"Yes." Haruka replied rubbing her somewhat sore shoulder. "He is Aegelle, the first king of the united kingdoms of the north and south after the reformation."

"Very good." Asclepiodotus praised. "But do you know his relevance to you?"

Haruka nodded. "He is my grandfather. I never met him, but my mother used to tell me stories about him."

"He was my first teacher." Asclepiodotus commented. "When our parents sent us away for our education the first planet we stopped at was Uranus and he was our teacher there. He set aside days so he could personally instruct lessons. I owe a great deal to him and his teachings. I would never have become the man I am with out them."

The Saturnarian stood back and regarded her for a moment. "You look a great deal like your mother when she was your age."

Haruka shrank back startled. "My mother?"

Asclepiodotus nodded steadily. "Yes. When the young aristocracy were rounded up from their home worlds and integrated into one group to be sent to every planet for their education, per the tradition the knights began, she was among those who came from Uranus. She was a very dear friend of mine when we were young. You look almost exactly like her only just a bit taller, perhaps." They mediated in placid silence for a moment before he motioned to her again. "Come, our final destination lies further this way."

Haruka wrinkled up her brow. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere new you have never been nor have ever seen before. I assure you." He said over his shoulder.

_Or can never find my way out of again_ Haruka thought as she took note of the corridors as they became an intricate patchwork of twisting turns and sharp corners. It made her feel uneasy that she did not know where she being led, but even so, the prospect of further questioning the tall man who led her was a bit more discerning. Finally, the corridors again began to lighten and Haruka felt herself beginning to breathe easier once more. Asclepiodotus stopped before two large double doors, each carved with the delicate particularity of a master craftsman out of deep cherry wood, a sheen of ambivalence somewhat shielding its true nature from most viewers by giving an illusion of dark polished exterior rather than that of a more simple timber. The pulls forming an apex at the innermost center of each door were carved of gold untarnished in its ageless feel. Inlaid in the dark recesses, peaking out from the dark wood in its dull dual coloring were small statuaries; each one of a figure either from antiquity or from the myths.

It was rather fitting actually. Who else would know the history of the universe so completely than those who never died, whose timeless generations never aged or suffered loss of remembrance of what had come before? Indeed, the Plutonians seemed to cultivate a certain majesty, an assured reverence for the past, the present, and for the future they believed would come afterwards giving a whole new meaning to what had existed before. Asclepiodotus ran the palm of one calloused hand along the polished surface, a radiance the seemed to coincide with that reflecting off from the indigo gemstone lodged in his signet ring echoing there in the wood's mysterious depths, not all together seen or realized.

"Do you understand what it says?" The Saturnarian noble nodded his head toward an inscription carved in the keystone in the archway above their heads.

Haruka gazed upward. She honestly had not noticed it when they had come in, but now it held new fascination for her. The continuous circlets of scrolling words began at the keystone in the center of the arch and branched down both sides.

"If you are to read it, you must begin in the middle for it will not make sense any other way." He cautioned.

First of all how she read it did not seem to make a difference. Haruka realized that she could not read this language simply because she did not know it.

"Can you read it, child?" Asclepiodotus asked, a small smile playing upon his features.

"No, it is in a language I have never seen before." Haruka admitted honestly.

"Of course not." He chuckled knowingly. "By this age normally, had you been educated within a group of royal children in the way most nobles are, you would have been taught the fundamentals of it; but your experience is quite different. Because you were taken away for this type of training, the opportunity was not open to you. Not your choice, I understand and I do not doubt that Setsuna will begin teaching it to you one day soon so you have not need to worry. It is in the old language, the ancient universal tongue that everyone spoke when all peoples were united under the rule of the Great Nine. Easily translated it says 'What happened yesterday was insignificant, the next day may never come, what shall you do with this day?'".

"The past does not matter?" Haruka asked entirely confused.

Asclepiodotus shook his head from side to side slightly as he fought within himself to find the exact word description he wanted to use. "More or less. The past is thought of because it, according to one's own experiences, tends to dominate the choices one makes in the future, but ideally, it should hold no sway over the present. Because people, though they do tend to build their own confining walls, had the ability to heal or let go of an unpleasant occurrence when one does take place. We can move on, as most would say and that ability, in addition to a few supplementary defining characteristics, is what makes us human and is what gives the universal its basis for living."

Haruka swallowed and gazed back up at the inscription engraved in to the white stoned arch above. It did not all make sense to her. How could the past have no effect on the future? How could it not matter in the present? She knew Asclepiodotus had done his best to explain it to her, but his best was not enough in this case. She just could not understand.

Noticing the turmoil manifesting itself on Haruka's face, Asclepiodotus smiled indulgently and reached out for the pulls of the doors. "Please follow me, he has been expecting us."

With little effort the two doors were pushed open. Revealed to them both was a large chamber, two of its four walls open to the growing morning outdoors while the other two were decorated with many armaments and small statues extending to the domed heights of the ceiling.

Asclepiodotus reached out and pushed Haruka ahead of him. "He has been waiting to see you, you must go to him."

Haruka's blue-green widened at the thought of being left alone with a perfect stranger and also at the even more daunting prospect of having to wander the halls again just to find her way back. She doubted Ancalime would be able to come to her rescue this time.

Asclepiodotus smiled reassuringly as he took hold of the doors and turned to face her. "I will wait in the corridor."

Then the doors were pulled shut with the resounding creaking of the hinges and he was gone. Haruka swallowed and turned back reluctantly towards the huge room. Many different types of eloquent furniture littered the room, leaving precious little free space to be had. She wove her way absently in between numerous futons upholstered in colored silks and covered with scattered yellowing documents written in the language she could not yet understand. She turned to one of the open walls. It was the main royal balcony overlooking the central courtyard separating this side of the ancient palace from the other where the imperial elegance of the inner dwellings gave way and the major fortifications of the castle began. This was the inside, the soft underbelly of Lionath where few, even the friendly had been allowed to venture.

Haruka walked out and peered out over the limestone railing. Below was an indoor lake, a long rectangular pool in which a linear pattern of bulbous stepping stones wadded waist deep in the green waters beneath the glare of the sun which was barely cresting through the leaves of the carefully tended growing trees along the sidewall. Along the precariously still green pond there was planted a great cornucopia of greenery, flowers in flourishing pinks, reds, yellows, whites, purples, and blacks all purposefully placed in simple earthen squares on either side. Passed all of this there lay the final decorative measure.

An arch welded together in a conundrum of iron and clear glass supported by two stone pillars frescoed in geometric shades of red, orange, and yellow, surrounded by a further windowed wall stained glass, its viable rainbow of colors interwoven into patterns only the architect could have understood at the time of its creation. All of this seemed to frame the seemingly insignificant and minuscule portal to the other side.

"My great-grandfather commissioned that arch built before ever a man of stature would dare dream up such concoctions." A voice came from within the confines of the room she had just left.

Quickly, Haruka spun around, grasping the stone railing with one hand to ensure that she did not tumble over it in her haste. "Who is there?"

"I knew King Aegelle of Uranus he was one of my finest pupils in the days of the exchange." The dignified voice, so steeped in history that it seemed fathomless in its own right, continued calmly. "In that year, we, the host families to the students, were informed that one, Regelle the princess of Uranus was not to attend in the coming years. For some time, I wondered why, though I suppose, at heart I knew the truth. I knew that it was too dangerous for a sonless king to send his only daughter out into a whole new world abroad when safety for her was barely attainable at home. Though I understood this, I was still worried for the poor girl's education. How was she to ever learn the merits of the world without first venturing out into it? But I digress."

It was an old voice, regale and without threat and upon hearing it again the frenzied speed of Haruka's heart rate eased some, though she still did not know who the voice belonged to.

"First, it was Regelle and now it is you." The owner of the voice stepped forward in to the morning light on the balcony.

He was a man who looked to be no older than one in his mid thirties, but Haruka knew better. Such was the look of the Plutonian immortals, to remain youngly aged even while living on well into their thousands. His hair was of the darker shade of ebony common to nobility of this part of the world and he retained a well trimmed beard graphed to every contour of his face as though it were a finely tailored garment. His eyes were of the deep brown of his ancestors strewn with a sublime wash of innocent green which no expanse of time could ever take from them. His garments were those known to the man of antiquity, a simple white under robe over which was laid the garnet cloak, double clasped about his shoulders, swaying in the warm breeze with him as he stood comfortably in his polished leather sandals. The dark shade of his skin was almost flawless in its complexion and look, something which is almost an exclusive trait of an immortal.

Haruka swallowed the nervousness she had at first felt and forced herself to at least appear calm if nothing else. "Who are you?"

He regarded her thoughtfully as the green in those eyes twinkled characteristically. "I am Belisarius of Ida originally, though here I am called master by some, King by many."

"King?" Haruka retorted in almost cynical surprise. "I was not aware that there had been a king since Cronous died."

"There was not, or so at least not immediately." Belisarius clarified benevolently. "I was a friend of the good king's son, Prince Jade and also of the Princess Setsuna, but to a lesser extent. During the reign of Cronous, I served as one of his military advisors during time of peace and as a head general during the latter years of war that followed. When the king died, the real dilemma concerning his succession became apparent. Jade had disappeared, withdrawn himself from his family and status as crown prince to find his true purpose in the galaxy. Setsuna was considered as the new queen, but since Serenity inducted her into her personal service, she was ruled out as a potential heir. A council was held amongst the elders and it was decided, since no one could quite agree on anything but this one thought, that the various city-states would branch off. In name and in country they were still all of Pluto, but in rule they were to be presided over by their own native nobles. While the council was convened, I was placed on the throne as a regent in light of the ever present danger posed by the Dark Kingdom. When it all ended I was left on the throne in Estoduin and after a few years without consequence from the other states, I came to live here were my sons have ruled as resident nobles long before I arrived. So, there you have it, my girl. Pluto, indeed, still has a king."

"Why does no one know you are here?" Haruka asked. "Why be so secretive?"

Belisarius caught her gaze and held it contemplatively. "Why be so careful as to only set out for Lionath until after the dark of night had set over your own Castle Athena?"

Haruka sniffled. The air was dry to her. "For our safety."

"There you have it." Belisarius commented kindly.

Haruka watched him as he knelt down and pulled a dead leaf off from a potted plant nearest the marble pillar. "Who were those people who attacked us? I understand they are our enemies and members of the Dark Kingdom, but who were _they_ exactly?"

"In the great glass overview of things, who they are is of little importance to us here, now." Belisarius peeled some further dead roughage from the vinery of the plant.

"I understand, but I still…want to know." Haruka persisted.

A small grin formed on Belisarius's features, though he tried his best to hide it as he concentrated on his work. _Truly, the minds of children are our best hope in all of this, because they bother to question what the rest of us do not. I applaud you, Serenity, you have indeed become very wise over the short length of your reign. Well done. _"They call themselves the Vandals and they inhabit a small planet beyond the reach of our own Sol system."

Haruka relaxed dismissively against the stone balustrade behind her back comfortably. "Why attack us?"

Belisarius threw the useless greenery aside and stood with a groan, examining his work. Though he appeared ageless, his knees were not what they used to be. "You know why."

Haruka sighed impatiently. She hated the way this man reasoned. Perhaps, only because it made things more difficult for her, but still. She groaned inwardly, this would not deter her. There had to be a weak point in him somewhere, even the immortals were not perfect. Maybe, if she continued being stubborn in her resolve, he would grant her the answers she wanted.

"But why?" Haruka asked insistently, determined to pry an answer from the annoying man.

The king had turned away towards another potted plant on the exact opposite side of the first. He studied it, scrutinizing it from afar, before again kneeling down to care for it. "You know, even as a child, neither botany nor gardening were never counted among my well defined strengths, but still the challenge of them interested me. Oh, I struggled, I struggled to gain an upper hand on them in my lessons. I tried all sort of cheating techniques, tried to strategize a way to make it easier for myself. None of it worked of course, but still I tried. Eventually when I married, I employed a gardener to do all of the annoying detail work for me, but now a couple thousand years later, I find there is nothing more fulfilling than doing the gardening myself, even if it proves difficult for me still."

Haruka groaned as she slumped against the stone backing. A short period of strained silence issued between the two as Haruka's diligent mind began contemplating a way to work around this puny man and his dilly-dallying little ways.

"May I pose a question, princess?" Belisarius broke the silence musingly as he brushed the dirt from his hands.

Haruka, caught off guard, sat as still as possible. "Yes."

"I was simply curious." The words came out of a long exhale as the man stood and stepped back to analyze his work. "What was the form that Uranus took after the fall of the Great Nine?"

Haruka's eyes narrowed at the overly simple inquiry. "A military nation."

"Can you give any reasons particularly?" He asked. Honestly, the man did seem interested.

Haruka rubbed the back of her neck as she stared at the flagstone floor in the garden pathways in the courtyard below. "I suppose it was because the emperor at the time thought he deserved more than he had been given. Ours is a sun beaten patch of earth with nothing in the way of wealth as other nations had at the time."

"Could it not be…no it could not." Belisarius resolved as he reached up and pulled a couple withering blossoms from the vine hanging from the archway above his head.

"What?" Haruka asked, her curiosity growing even more when he did not answer her. "What could not be?"

Belisarius shifted his weight from foot to foot as he avidly regarded the vines on either side of him with a trained eye. "Could it not be that the Vandals, who live in a system far more desolate than any of the deserts of Mars, took the opportunity to fight for the dark queen and her kingdom if there was a promise of obtaining something more? It would make sense then, in their attacking of ours, one of the oldest and richest kingdoms under reign of the Moon and a target so close I might add."

"I suppose." Haruka granted looking away, feeling a rush of heat come over her face from being blind sighted by so simple an answer. In the next few moments of silence, he anger at herself grew. Why had she been so blind?! She should have known it! She was smarter than that! "It is possible."

"Yes." Belisarius echoed as he studied her considerately. There was always hope and often it lay therein with young minds and people. His time here was almost to an end, he had foreseen it in his dreams, he knew what was to come in the future, but regardless, there was always hope…especially for a future that had not yet been written. "It is possible. Come, sit."

Haruka swallowed through her shame and rubbed her eyes where tears of shame threatened to fall. Then she followed him though the arch back into the room. He gestured her to a futon opposite from the one he had sat down upon. She fell back upon the futon and laid their awkwardly. Unfortunately, no one taught an etiquette class on how to properly sit on a Plutonian futon so this was her crash course. Belisarius grinned as he struggled not to laugh, but the chuckling inside his chest was indication enough that he found this funny.

Haruka sat up and gave him a hurt look as she leaned sideways so her back would connect with that of the futon.

"I apologize." Belisarius commented as his laughter quieted down. "But in life, when instances like this happen, you must laugh at yourself, otherwise you will not survive under all of the indignation you tend to force upon yourself. I know it may seem odd to learn this from a Uranian prospective, but failure is not shame."

Haruka's glare faltered and she took a deep breath while nodding.

"My son tells me that you seemed very eager to engage in the fray when the Vandals charged into the council chamber." Belisarius commented pouring to cups he had had set out for the occasion full to the brim with hot spiced tea on a table nearby. "He also tells me that when your teacher fell, you stayed by her side loyally. He tells me that you are very brave for one so young."

"Who is your son?" Haruka asked puzzled.

"Joscelin or Lord Ramsund to you." Belisarius commented as he handed her one of the small blue teacups.

"Then Ancalime is your granddaughter?" Haruka realized as a cold feeling she did not enjoy began to grow in the pit of her stomach.

"Yes." Belisarius seemed unsurprised by the admission as he took a sip of his tea. "And she tells me that the two of you have met."

"You've spoken with her?" Haruka asked almost hopefully.

"I always speak with her. While her father tends to the troubles of this city on a daily basis, she often comes to visit me. After a few years, it became our customary routine to take breakfast together and speak of the proceedings of the previous day. It is our routine still. She came to me early this morning and we talked of the events of last evening over a plate of fresh Saturnarian knot bread and Venusian honeyed dates."

Haruka felt cold all over. Did he know that she spent the night in the tower with the Ancalime? That the two had talked and comforted each other until they fell asleep? That even after so short a time spent together she thought softly of the girl who had held her and spoken softly to her in soothing tones? Could he know? A spark of indignation rose up in Haruka at the thought. What business was it of his if he did know? They were only friends after all. Where was the harm in all that?

Haruka swallowed a mouthful of hot jasmine tea quickly, feeling the burn as it traveled down her throat and not quite caring. "How is she?"

"She fares well." Belisarius regarded her enigmatically, though not menacingly. "The affairs of last night troubled her some, but I am sure she will be fine. Most notably, she spoke of you."

Haruka set the cup down on the close table top and the delicate china rattled with shaky speed. She stared down at the unharmed cup and its contents wide eyed. The sinking feeling that had hampered her had brought her worries down to ground zero.

"Was the tea not to your liking?" Belisarius asked gauging her rather strange reaction.

"No!...No, the tea was very good. "Haruka replied quickly as she rubbed her eyes and attempted to keep her head from spinning off of her neck where it was propped up at the same time.

As she sat back and worried, her walls crumbled internally as she searched for any possible reply to keep pesky guilt over nothing at bay and any cause for suspicion away from him. Frenziedly, she spouted the only thing that came to mind. "I did not do it."

"Excuse me?" Belisarius sat up, bewildered.

"No, I mean…I have done nothing wrong." Haruka spouted again and again regretted it the moment it came forth from her mouth.

"No, of course you have not." Belisarius reassured seriously. "What would make you think that you had?"

"A long night and a great deal of worry." Haruka sighed as she sat back relieved.

"Well, now you see how troubled you have been for nothing? Your teacher will soon recover and you have played the part of a loyal and brave pupil. I am sure she could not be prouder of you." Belisarius eased. "Now, relax, I will not speak with you until you do."

"What did she say about me?" Haruka asked leaning back comfortably against the upholstered wood.

"That she met you when you became lost in the castle on your way to the council chamber." Belisarius replied without missing a beat, taking a last finishing gulp of his tea. "And that she found you last night in the tower. The two of you talked for a while and then fell asleep. After her father woke her, she came to me."

"She is nothing if not thorough." Haruka sighed, half out of unexpected relief and half of relaxation as she allowed her tense muscles to unwind.

Belisarius laughed deeply. It was a sound akin to that of melted chocolate rolling down marble. "That she is."

"You said that the Vandals thought they stood to gain from this invasion. What of the stable boy?" Haruka asked.

"The stable boy?" Belisarius inquired puzzled.

"Yes." Haruka sat up straighter. "Cador was his name. He took our horses to the stable last night. He spoke to me while I was tending to my horse of wanting to become a knight of Serenity's court, but of how he was disappointed because she had discontinued the program. Then during the attack in the council chamber, I saw him again, fleeing with the belligerents."

"Do you believe that he helped them?" Belisarius asked as he stared deep into the recesses of his empty cup.

Haruka shook her head and leaned back. "I think so. He had to of, otherwise how else could they have gotten into the city unnoticed or passed your towers without raising alarm?"

"Indeed." Belisarius set the cup aside and became contemplative. "I will consult my son and we will most likely initiate a search for the boy. If he is in fact missing, then we will respond accordingly. You are sure you understand what you saw? You can remember it with absolute clarity?"

Haruka nodded her head firmly. "Yes."

Belisarius sighed showing the first visible sign of stress since she arrived.

"Why would a boy join the Dark Kingdom?" Haruka asked more of herself than of anyone else.

"Perhaps, the dark queen made him an offer he could not pass up." Belisarius mused, lost in a sort of daze. "Perhaps, she told him she would make him a knight in his own right."

Haruka shook her head angrily. "It is a waste."

"No, it is a choice." Belisarius corrected calmly pouring his cup full of tea again. "And life begins and ends with them. What you see as being a wrong decision, Haruka, may not feel like one to the boy you just described."

"Does he have no sense of wrong or right?" Haruka spat crossly.

"On the contrary, he has more a grasp of everything in this world than you do, respectfully." Belisarius replied taking a first sip of the hot drink to clear his palate. "He is a stable hand, someone who has been used and under footed by those in power. Who is to know better than he the dregs of a life so low? He knows what is right and wrong in this world and, as he sees it, what is wrong is that he is not right in the eyes of the fates nor is he fairly regarded as what he wants himself to be. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Haruka acknowledged albeit grudgingly.

"Regardless of the persons at fault, place or time of the infractions committed, he has decided to act out against all of us, against the world he sees as unjust and unfair. He has lost hope of something better for he knows his fate if he stays in this place. What the Dark Kingdom represents to him is something far different than what it does for us. To the boy it represents opportunity, freedom from the chains of servitude and the mundane. Thus, many of those whom have joined the dark queen may be counted among the largely discontented in this world. A man on the streets who has no property or possessions to his name but the clothes on his back may pledge his life to the dark queen and be promised the title of master of a city once they conquer it. For the discontent and destitute, she is beacon of light not evil, but they do not know all. The unsuspecting common man knows nothing of her deceit, has seen none of her treachery at hand." Belisarius paused for a moment, his stare transfixed on the silver teapot set aside on the table in front of them as the afternoon light made it glitter and wink in the dim glow of the chamber. "Though this is the first time a Vandal bloc has schemed their way this far into the kingdom, it is not the first time that they have besieged us in such a way. This quarrel has been going on for years, many in fact. In the years when the knights were being educated on the moon and wars were still but cruel distant dreams, heard of, but not yet experienced by the new generation, my grandson had been sent from Lionath to wage a first defensive front against the oncoming wave of soldiers darkening our horizon. He fought alongside many gallant souls including Roussel of Basque and Einhard, the historian who traveled through the most hazardous of conditions to put down in print the record of the war. The battles were always fierce with news of them trickling slowly back to us.

"My grandson once wrote to me after the victory over the Vandals at Callinicum. In the letter he told me that the moment all enemies had been disposed of, he had felt as though the glory of victory would never end, as though it was as everlasting as our race itself. He said that the second his blade was pulled from the last putrid body, he felt that the noise of singing metal would echo throughout time and remain as immortal as he was. Perhaps, as a consequence of his ill begotten predictions, he did not live to see forty years of life. I wept when I heard the news that he had been killed at Calimi along with all of his men."

Haruka did not know what to say. What was she to say after an admission like that? Silently, she cast her eyes upon the shinning silver teapot and the engravings wrapped in fluid curvatures around its sleek girth. Belisarius sighed and continued as he finished his second cup of tea.

"I am sorry for your loss." Haruka said sincerely.

Belisarius set the empty cup down on the table before them. "We must not dwell on the past, Haruka. It was an open wound which has still yet to close now, but it will in due time, it will."

He took a deep breath and continued, a bracing steadiness to his voice which seemed to have grown there within the last few sentences.

"He was always a good boy, but his thoughts were never focused on the greater picture, never on the potential expanse of time. The choices he made within the confining years of his short lifetime reflect this view. No one person, not even his father could convince him out of pursuing an idea until he discarded it himself. Remember, Haruka, your ability to reason and to decide is your own. When the final ending of days comes, you cannot argue with the fates the merits of the undesirable choices you made in your life if any. No excuses will suffice, remember this. If you do something, you must do it because you think it is right. Remember this."

"I swear to you, I will." Haruka responded.

"I do hope so." Belisarius commented. "So it is with people, especially with the young. They scorn our words in protest and suffer for it in some form or fashion. But a choice is in no one else's possession, but their own. They may do with it what they will. Everyone is aware of this, if only subconsciously. Still it is true no?"

"I believe so." Haruka nodded.

"I realize that Setsuna is in charge of almost every aspect of your education, but in light of the fact that she has been injured and will require ample time to recover, I have decided that you will be continuing your academic lessons here under my tutelage." Belisarius watched her gauging her reaction as each emotion crossed her face. "What say you to this? Do you accept this great honor I have offered you?"

Haruka swallowed slowly. "But I have limited knowledge on many of the subjects you would tutor me in. I never underwent the student exchange."

The corners of Belisarius's mouth slowly upturned into a knowing grin. "Neither did I."

Haruka's jaw dropped several inches and her eyes widened considerably. Belisarius smiled and turned away from her, standing up. "Well, I believe I have wasted enough of your morning. The afternoon is yours to spend however you wish. Go, live the day as you never have before. Tomorrow we begin our lessons."

Haruka nodded and stood as the king gathered some weathered documents off from a nearby desk and walked slowly away to another part of the huge chamber. Haruka swallowed. It was a rather unorthodox way to treat a guest, but then again there was nothing about this man that she had noticed as orthodox. At an even pace, she left the chamber and stepped outside the doors, listening to them creak shut slowly behind her. The late morning sun was warm on her face and she relished in the feeling as it played across her skin. After enduring the unreliability of Plutonian weather for over a year now, experiencing an actual hot day was a rare find.

"How did you find the King of Pluto?" Asclepiodotus asked, pushing himself away from where he had been leaning against one of the surrounding pillars.

"He is a unique soul." Haruka replied.

Asclepiodotus nodded his head in agreement. "He is that. One whom you can neither predict nor plan for. Each new meeting in a different experience entirely. Did he help put your troubled mind at ease?"

"Somewhat." Haruka granted with a smile as she though back. "He told me what I needed to hear."

Asclepiodotus nodded his head understandingly. "It is all the wisest man can ever do."

"I only have one question." Haruka said.

"And what would that be?" Asclepiodotus asked curiously.

"How do I get out of this damned place?"

Asclepiodotus chuckled lightly as he began to walk in the opposite way from which they had come. "This way. I will take you as far as the courtyard. It is beautiful this time of day. I am sure you will enjoy seeing it."

_Only if I can find my way back out of it again_ Haruka thought bitterly as she marched along after him again. She was becoming rather tired of these seemingly endless wild goose chases.

* * *

**Author's Note:** 42 bloody pages! Stop the bleeding! No, just kidding, but you have to admit this chapter was a rather lengthy one. But I digress. The one thing that I think it is imperative to remember in this chapter is that the senshi are growing up and in doing so are subject to all of the tumultuous, happy, anxious, and mixed feelings which accompanies the process. And although they are still, in retrospect, in love with one another, they will become fond with others at one point in time without ever losing the perfect meant-to-be affection they host for each other. We know, as people through our own experiences, that very few fall in love once and keep that first love for the rest of their lives, though such a notion does paint a pretty picture, one we love to write about. Eventually, Haruka and Michiru will find one another, but they will have many obstacles in the road to overcome, first loves being one of the many. Thank you for reading, though it may not have been all that you have expected, I really do hope you enjoyed reading it. Please, drop me a review and enlighten me with what you think of the chapter. Whether you scorn it or adore it, let me know and for what reasons, if you'd be so kind. Such helpful maps put us in the right direction to become better writers, better practicing artisans of our amazing crafts. Once again, thank you! 


	7. To Seek Without Purpose

**Chapter 7: To Seek Without Purpose**

_**First Millennia of Queen Selene Serenity I's Reign 2479**_

_**Ionian Plain, Saturn**_

_**Jade's House **_

It was early morning and the light pitch of the sun was just beginning to ebb away the flow of dark amethyst which had surrounded the eaves of the cottage only moments before. The sun's rays peaked stealthily through the window of the loft Michiru and Finduilas both shared. An absent beam of orange radiance splashed across the pale cream of the Neptunian's sleeping face, dancing the ballet of soon and hopeful wakefulness.

Two cerulean eyes cracked open then shut themselves off from the light and retreated for the safe haven of darkness. It was too bright and too early! Michiru brought the violet cloth of one sleeve up to rub the sleep from her eyes. She groaned accordingly, rolled over and opened her eyes. Finduilas laid not a hair's breath beside her, wide awake and smiling across at her.

"What?" Michiru asked eyeing her curiously.

Finduilas' grin widened. "You get to leave today. You must be so excited!! I wish I could travel like you, see the world as you do." She drawled enthusiastically, but then a slightly more deflated expression filtered through her tone, "Papa never takes us on any of his travels. When he goes away we often don't even know where he goes. He doesn't tell us, only Mama."

Michiru felt a pang of guilt just then and she winced outwardly, not trying to keep the emotion from reaching her face.

Finduilas smiled once more, "It is not your fault, Michiru. Papa, he has a mind of his own."

Michiru's expression sobered and she nodded solemnly. She new better than to think that, but still guilt rode on her shoulders for taking Jade priority away from his family. They deserved more than he gave them and he did not realize that he neglected them, which was the worst part. He needed to, would have to someday realize it.

Michiru smiled indulgently. "In my experience, the world is not all that great of a place, all and all. It is simply vast and frightening."

Finduilas rolled her eyes. "Certainly, but underneath all of that, there has to be something else to it. Something profound and worth meaning which interests us. Something which drives us."

Michiru shrugged her shoulders. "If you say so."

"I do not just say so, I know so." Finduilas nodded her head confidently.

Michiru sighed resignedly and focused on the white sheets covering the straw mattress they slept on. "This will be the third time I have been asked to leave a party of people I care for."

Finduilas shook her head. "Yes, but this time it is different. This time you will come back. When it is all over you will return to this house, to us."

Michiru swallowed and remembered the last time she had attempted to harness the great power within her. It had been a hard day of physical training and Jade had pushed her farther than ever he had before. He had cornered her in the glade they often trained in and had forced her into close combat. At first, she had done well, blocking every blow he issued and even landing a daring punch to the center of his chest; but everything had gone down hill from that point forward.

His attacks increased so much in speed that she could no longer follow them, making blocking them impossible. As she was pushed back, each painful hit after the other, something inside her had begun to break.

A response to the need to protect herself which she, under normal circumstances could not fulfill, grew unbidden within her, but she still had control of it and thus would not venture to use it. It was not until Jade struck out at her and landed a mighty punch to her ribcage that her control fell through. Michiru could remember it, the sheer feeling of it, as the blue fire had blazed within her. She had stood up, a natural instinct which she had not known was her own possessing her, and as Jade charged toward her she raised one of her arms and out from her palm came a jet of energy which knocked the surprised Plutonian prince back into the trees beyond them.

Fear had suddenly ran rampant through her. What had she done? Had she gone too far? Had she hurt him? She had raced over towards him. Jade sat up from amongst the broken brush and branches, eyes wide and breathing labored. He had rested there, regarding her with those large awed eyes. Finally, gathering his wits about them again, he had said: "That was…unexpected. I think you are ready for your elemental training. We must begin at once."

Since then, Jade had slackened up on the physical training and had wore her down to basic strength building exercises and weapons practice. During the moments when they were not training, he spoke avidly about her elemental training and how strong she really was and also how she could not know of her true potential because she was not ready yet to know. It scared her. The fervor with which her expected so much of her, more than she thought she was capable of giving. Why? Why did he count upon her so much? When it all came down to it what could she really do?

"Michiru?" Finduilas asked quietly, drawing her out of her own world of thought. "It will be alright. You will succeed in this. I believe you can do it, that you will do it."

Michiru still felt unsure, but she masked the expression with a confident smile. "Thank you. I will not disappoint all of you, I promise."

They had dressed and descended down the ladder not long after that. Already at this early morning hour, the cottage was alive with activity. Grimhild had awoken long before the sun and was laboring over a pot on the fire. Even Jade, whom his wife had to practically beat out of bed every morning, was partially awake, sitting at the table and reading a letter which had been brought by messenger to him. Michiru studied the unrolled sheet of parchment carefully.

Broken upon both its northern and southern borders were the remnants of a waxen seal. Though cut in half and crumbling, the interior of the burgundy glob of wax shown with a globe perched atop half of a scepter which continued into oblivion where the reader had ripped it open. It was a Plutonian seal.

Michiru longed to ask what the letter was about. Was it from Setsuna? Was everything alright? Did one of them get hurt? Was Haruka alright? So many questions leapt up into her throat to be answered, but not one passed her lips.

"Papa?" Finduilas spoke up sheepishly.

Jade did not hear her. A stern look was upon his face, a result of the letter's contents, Michiru suspected.

"Jade, look sharp! Your daughter is talking to you." Grimhild shrieked in her husband's direction without taking her attention away from the boiling pot.

Jade's eyes rolled over the parchment edge and focused on the two girls standing next to the loft ladder. For a minute, his features retained the uncompromising form of before, but then they softened and his lips parted into a hopelessly youthful smile.

"Good morning!" Jade greeted sitting up and pulling his booted feet off from the table top where he had been resting then, much to his wife's chagrin. "How are you girls at this fine morning hour?"

Michiru's eyebrows came together in a vexed expression. She leaned over to Finduilas so she could whisper into her ear.

"How can he be so cheerful?" Michiru asked.

Finduilas shrugged. "It must be from lack of sleep."

"Well, aren't you going to greet me?" Jade asked as he leaned forward and laid the letter face down on the table beside him.

Finduilas smiled and raced up to him as he caught her in his arms and lifted her up onto his lap.

"Finduilas, my angel!"

"Papa?"

"Yes, Finduilas?"

"What was that you were reading?"

"A letter from Pluto, dearest, but there's nothing to worry about; I promise you."

He bent forward and kissed his daughter's cheek as she smiled, but Michiru's heart was not put at ease by the sight. Would Setsuna have sent word only to tell of Haruka's strength in their training? No, it would take too long for a message to get through. This letter had to have been sent by currier weeks ago, but then what would it contain? Michiru's brow furrowed as she tried to come up with possible explanations as to why a letter would have had to be sent. Why go to the trouble? Her musings were cut short by her name being called.

"Michiru?" Grimhild called and it was then that the Neptunian princess became aware of the whole family's eyes upon her. "Are you alright, child? You looked troubled, what's gotten into you, girl?"

Michiru shook her head quickly, not meeting the older woman's eyes, "Nothing."

"Well, I am glad to hear it, because today is too big a day for you to be sullen." Jade spoke up with an enthused expression.

Michiru swallowed and put forward an unconvincing nervous smile. Finduilas smiled in turn both at her father's boyish antics and at Michiru's uncharacteristic sheepishness at the prospect of leave taking. She straightened in her father's embrace and looked Michiru straight in the eye.

"You'll be fine." Finduilas spouted waving her fist enthusiastically in the air, her words impassioned to drive the point home. "You're going to leave here and you're going to come back a full fledged adult senshi. Do you hear me? You are going to come back a accomplished soldier who bring about an end to the darkness and we are all going to be proud of you when you do!"

Both Michiru and Finduilas' parents were set aback by the girl's eagerness.

"Finduilas." Grimhild chastised, but it was a hollow admonishment.

The floor creaked behind them and Michiru turned as Elboron brushed aside the blanket separating the boys' bed from the dining room and let it fall swaying behind him. He was only dressed up to his waist, holding his long sleeved over tunic and the collar of a brown velvet brigandine in his hands as he walked, exposing the sleek muscles of his athletic torso. Michiru turned away from him almost immediately, a fresh sheen of pink springing to life in her cheeks before she could hide it.

"Elboron you are never to enter the kitchen half dressed again is that understood?" Grimhild's eyes narrowed at her eldest son.

"Yes, Michiru could have fainted." Finduilas as both her mother and best friend's eyes glared daggers at her, but did not pay either of them any heed.

"Your timing is oddly precise this morning, Elboron." Jade commented as he set the letter on the table and let his daughter down off of his lap, ignoring the comment along with Michiru's face as it grew redder. "Are you ready for the journey, son?"

"Yes, father." The boy replied pulling the tunic and brigandine over his head quickly. As he looked up from straightening the sleeves of his navy tunic beneath those of the brigandine, his eyes caught those of Michiru and he smiled as she turned away from him, blushing again. "What say you, Michiru, are you equally ready as well?"

Michiru swallowed, "As ready as I ever shall be."

"That is good to hear, Michiru." Jade returned trying to catch his son's eyes as he stood up. "Shall we."

Elboron and Jade left the house, going to pack up the cart as Grimhild fed the children a quick breakfast. Michiru was handed a bowl of steaming porridge topped with cinnamon and brown sugar to pass along to Finduilas beside her and then one of her own and a spoon to eat it with. The Neptunian princess found out rather quickly that the butterflies swarming around in her belly muted the whimpering cries of her quickly growing appetite substantially. Finduilas noticed this right away and the moment her mother's back was turned towards them, she nudged her friend in the ribs.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself and second guessing your abilities." She whispered sternly before shoving a spoonful of hot porridge in to her mouth, instantly regretting it as the hot gooey substance burned on the way down. "You'll be fine. Relax a little."

Suddenly, Michiru felt the weight of someone's hands land on her shoulders as Elboron leaned over her and laid a quick familial kiss on her cheek, causing her to blush embarrassedly.

"Be at ease, Princess." He said through a smirk at the sedate reaction his unexpected actions had caused in her. "My father wouldn't make the journey if he didn't think you would be able to master your elemental training accordingly."

"Elboron!" both Finduilas and Grimhild admonished together and for the first time, Michiru noticed a resemblance between mother and daughter which was normally absent from an ordinary day.

"What?"

Jade came into the house, shutting the door loosely behind him before he moved over toward his wife by the fire where his nose hungrily took in the scent of the fresh porridge simmering in the boiling pot hanging above the flames. He licked his lips boyishly and picked the wooden spoon off of the mantle to take a taste of the lovely dish, but his wife snatched it from his grasp, her arms crossed against her chest, tapping one foot on the floor of the cabin disapprovingly.

"What, no porridge for a starving man?" Jade asked dejectedly.

"No." Grimhild replaced the spoon on the mantle and retrieved a small parcel beside it, first wrapped in a few layers of cheese cloth and then safely anchored in a leather pouch with some small wooden eating utensils strapped to the back. When she handed it to her husband, the exterior was still slightly warm in his hands. "This is yours." When Jade looked back up at her with one eyebrow cocked in question, she went on to explain with a shy smile reminiscent of the quiet girl she had once been, "It is all of the ingredients for a Pilaf for lunch."

Then Grimhild walked over to a counter top where she had covered a loaf of fresh bread in a shroud of cloth and also grabbed a tied goatskin filled to the brim inside with mulsum, an ancient mixture of wine and honey which Jade favored over anything else. She crossed over to her astonished husband and offered them to him.

"These too?" Jade looked surprised. His wife had not prepared a meal for him like this upon the day of his leaving since they were first married. This was the warm young woman he had fallen in love with instead of the brash wife whom he adored. He smiled and impulsively leaned forward and kissed her affectionately and pulled back still smiling. "Thank you, my dear."

Michiru's eyes widened at the sight. She had never seen the two show affection to one another, though she knew she should not be surprised that such things happened in his house, they had four children after all, but it still seemed odd to her in a way. Finduilas nudged her again, smiling broadly this time and Michiru blushed ashamedly for staring.

"You've never seen them kiss before?" Finduilas asked at a whisper, not entirely surprised.

"No."

"That does not shock me at all." Finduilas said. "They very seldom give any inclination of warmth towards one another except in these rare moments. It's just how they conduct themselves. Lucky for you that you were able to witness it before you go or you might have never seen them do anything like this in your stay with us and really," here Finduilas paused and raised her eyebrows in a very comic gesture towards Michiru, "that would have been a unforgivable shame."

Michiru had to laugh at this and she and Finduilas both broke into uncontrollable fits of the giggles.

"Shh!" Elboron whispered towards them and even as they quieted, they smiled conspiratorially.

"Ohh, shhh on you, Elboron!" Finduilas hissed back just as quietly.

"Children, children, please!" Jade turned back to them, his arms full of the packages he had been handed while Grimhild, her normal self again, returned her attention to the pot over the fire. "No more bickering. Hurry, and eat your breakfast."

The porridge in the wooden bowl gained the children's undivided attention, the punishment of being pushed around by a disrespectful spoon on the brooding Neptunian's part. Michiru had been hungry upon waking, almost famished, but the renewed nerves took that from her as they kindled butterflies alive in the pit of her stomach. Jade noticed her hesitance when he came back from tucking the parcels of food from his wife into the cart and placed his heavy hand on her nimble shoulder and nodded his understanding as some small consolation.

"Eboron." Jade called as seriously as he was able. "Michiru, come it's time."

Michiru nodded, took a deep breath, and stood.

They saw upon coming through the door that the cart was tightly packed with supplies with Jade's great steed, Amulius harnessed in anticipation of the journey to its front. Elboron stepped up into the cart first, settling himself comfortably on the bench and taking the reins. Jade lifted Michiru by her waist to sit in the back atop their packed belongings comfortably. She sat back, flittering nerves rising from her stomach into her chest and fluttering there aimlessly like a fly struggling to free itself from the murderous netting of a spider's web. Then Jade hefted himself up onto the bench next to his son and took the reins heartily when Elboron offered them to him.

Michiru's eyes widened as Amulius' great hooves pawed at the dirt below restlessly. This was for real. It wasn't just some dream she had been dreading would come over her again. It was really happening. For the first time since her arrival at Jade's house she was leaving again and the loss of the familiar, feeble sense security she had come to rely upon frightened her. But Jade believed in her and most importantly of all, Finduilas, her constant friend and almost sister since she had come to Saturn believed in her ability to do this. And who was a better judge than someone who knew her as well as anyone ever could?

Jade turned to his family one last time and looked to his wife. "Grimhild, you will watch after the children."

It wasn't a question and the stubborn woman who was his life partner would not answer it as such, she knew him better. "What do you take me for husband? Just bring our son, the cart and the horse back in one piece and no trouble will come to you."

Jade smirked and nodded. He then turned his attention to the road before him and without looking back, snapped the reins over Amulius' haunches, causing the horse to start forward at a steady gait. Michiru startled and had to reach out for the railing on one side of the cart to keep herself from vaulting over the edge. The sudden jolt had sent her half over the barrier and she was half leaning out of the cart, staring unseeingly at the galloping dirt road below.

As she came to realize what had happened and also where she was, Michiru pushed herself up on the arms which had caught her enough to see the cabin along with the fleeting figures of her former family fading in the distance as they journeyed on. Michiru was hesitant to admit it to herself, even in the confines of he own mind, the very real fact that she was scared more than she could ever remember being in the whole of her young life.

Worse, she was terrified.

When the last trace of familiarity fell from view and she had nothing else left to cling to, only then, did Michiru push herself fully back into the cart and relinquish herself to the unknown possibilities and inevitabilities the road had to offer her.

--

_**City of Lionath, Pluto**_

They had found the courtyard without much hindrance and Asclepiodotus, true to his word, had left her to her own devices so that she could wander freely throughout the area until she saw fit. According to what Asclepiodotus had told her, this was the first of the inner most courtyards and, in accordance with being the oldest, it was also the most extravagant of them all. She had seen the courtyard or at least an aerial view of it from the king's balcony, but it seemed even more magnificent being able to experience its ancient beauty first hand. It was a huge expanse of landscaped space open liberally to the abandon of the sky above. The trees were closer here, offering shade from the growing overbearing heat of the sun.

Lingeringly, Haruka moved at a leisurely pace into the welcoming shade. The fragrant scent of the blooming flowers mixed perfectly with the fresh smell of nature in spring and brought her senses out from the depths they had been brooding in for the last few hours. Taking a deep breath, she felt the whole of her body release the weight of everything she had been dragging behind her since the night before: the guilt at not being able to protect Setsuna, the destitute hopelessness of being alone in a strange city, taking refuge with strangers whom she had no prior acquaintance with or obligation to, or of the unraveling revelation of looking the carnage of death in the face for the first time. All of it ran from her shoulders and the tight coil of rope binding her soul in her chest eased a bit. It was a revitalizing experience. She felt practically human again.

Without hesitation, Haruka then moved out of the shade and back out into the morning sunlight to continue her exploration of this exotic new place she now found herself in.

The great rectangular pool was larger in person, spanning almost the whole length of the open square. The ground was paved with flagstones, most white, some maroon, others gold. The scent of the different flowers flooded the surrounding air with a type of natural sweetness reminiscent of the varying and far off fields of wildflowers which flanked the Castle Athena. It was as though there was the breath of angels or some unidentified divine creature alive around her whom she could not see.

Haruka bent and picked up a small stone near her feet, then without a word, she recoiled back and skipped the round stone over the surface of the aquamarine waters of the pool. It bounced defiantly two, no three times, before sinking beneath the ripples in definite obscurity. Absently, she reached up and touched the pendant chained around her neck. Michiru had given it to her a year ago and still she had never taken it off. It was a part of her or had become so much a part of her over the last few months that she was loathe to ever separate it from her. Stashing it back below her shirt collar, even without the thought in her head, Haruka knew that if ever she tried to remove the pendant and its chain from her neck it would hurt more than hacking off one of her limbs.

The Uranian's attention was stirred momentarily as a gust of beckoned stream water came bursting out from one of the many qanats irrigating the various flowers and plants of the garden and evened out to its previous steady flow without further interruption. A slight breeze swayed the multicolored blooms around her and even encouraged the branches of some of the sheltering trees to tenuously join in the game. Quite comfortable with the tangible surroundings now, she resumed her exploratory trek around the courtyard.

It was then that Haruka realized in her wanderings, that her view of the courtyard from the balcony had been very limited.

The courtyard expanded beyond the limits of the inner wall. Where the tan stones were blanketed in blossoming vinery, there was an archway almost completely shielded from the world. Haruka had first noticed it when a gardener, who had been tending to one of the few orange trees in the vicinity, had approached the wall, swept the vines aside and passed into the oblivion beyond. The Uranian child had blinked unbelievingly. Had she witnessed what she thought she had just witnessed? Did that man just walk through a solid stone wall? With her curiosity again getting the better of her, she stepped forward cautiously and followed the trek of the fruit tender. Hesitantly, but with the courage she would later come to be praised for, Haruka reached out and pulled back the gangly partition. On the other side it was as though a whole new world had suddenly been given birth to and emerged fully formed out of nothing.

The arch in the wall led out onto a peristyle, a columned terrace which looked out over a small expanse of green land barred in by dark, moss covered stones. Its walls were high and the sun was loath to cross the path of such a height. This had to be an entrance yard, an open colonnade where the servants and workers could roam generously from place to place without trouble. Still, with its fresh rainy smell and natural greenery, it was like a woodland glade which had taken refuge in the palace of all places and had been allowed to grow in peace. This also had to be the innermost yard as most colonnades and the grounds they overlooked tended to led directly to the villa or the ancestral dwelling of the family.

In exploring this place, Haruka understood what Setsuna had meant when she had told her that this was one of the most guarded places in all of Pluto. The group of Vandals who had attacked last night had only breeched the castle's outer ring while the palace and the family who lived deep within this well protected maze had been left untouched and safeguarded from the conflict. This yard was like a limbo between the previous and the next court, a place of essence and not complete dislike where a weary soul could find he or herself dreadfully lost with no way out.

Resolutely, Haruka decided to discontinue that line of thought. She stepped forward and descended the small four step gap between the porch floor and the dew laden grass below. There were several buildings jetting out opposite the walls in the length of the place. They were cast out of oak covered in a terracotta type clay and covered with half oval clay shingles overlapped together so that when the hard rains came, the water would drain naturally from the roof without incident.

Out of one came again the solemn gardener. Haruka backtracked silently to lie in the path of a pillar's shadow so as not to be seen. The man took the large wicker basket of discarded weeds and dead leaves and dumped it into a large troth, then he made a few clicking noises with his tongue and to Haruka's surprise, two donkeys came out of the side alcove which she had not been able to see from the peristyle. Why keep livestock within the inner compound? It would make more sense to keep them in the castle stables, wouldn't it?

The man walked up and fondly brushed the dust from the neck of one of the grazing animals before he turned away from them and started back towards the arch he had entered from. Haruka moved closer to the pillar, leaving no possibility in her wake that the man would be able to see her. She heard the wood of his sandals scrape the stone steps as he walked back up and the sweep of vines as he reentered the courtyard. Taking a deep breath, Haruka backed away from the pillar and stepped closer to observe the two browsing donkeys.

The one nearest her perked up his ears as she came closer, but took little interest in her, seeing as how she was smaller than he and appeared to pose not threat to him. Still, Haruka wisely kept her distance. The first's coat was of a coarse almost black with a line of auburn running down the length of his back and crossing at the shoulders. She also noticed that clipped onto one of his large ears was a distinguishable ring of gold. These were merchant's donkeys.

Very suddenly, a sound came from within one of the buildings and fearing discovery, Haruka began running towards the arch in the other wall, opposite from the one she had entered.

Out of limbo she emerged into paradise. Another large courtyard half the size of the first, but no less impressive than its predecessor. It was divided into four basic corners, being separated somewhat from one another by walkways of leveled stones which all met at a great fountain in the center. Haruka squinted, the sun seemed extremely bright here out in the open. Geometric shapes and features only exaggerated the golden glow and focused it inward towards the entering guest, but the garden was not without relief from the heat.

Against the opposite wall there were planted cypress trees which offered shade from the offending sun. At the center of all of this was a great round pavilion. Its columns were lined with green vines that flowed from top to bottom sprouting blossoms of deep red, yellow, and white. Haruka continued forward with caution. This was a private garden of some merit, no doubt. She looked around gauging the wide array of plant life. A pair of colorful birds chirped and cooed in one of the tall cypress. This was a peaceful place and though Haruka had the inkling that she was lost…again, she was not sure she cared this time.

Contentedly, she walked up the stairs to the gazebo pavilion. It was white, all of glistening ivory stone. She circled the area unhurriedly, enjoying the surroundings and the new cornucopia of smells there. The red blossoms on the vines had perhaps the sweetest aromas and the most alluring of all of those present. Reverently, she reached out and caressed a velvet blossom, quietly astonished when a stray scarlet petal fell onto her palm on its own accord.

"They are so delicate." Ancalime commented softly as she began climbing the few short steps to the pavilion, appearing out of almost no where. "It is a miracle that they could bear to survive here, in this ever changing place where nothing is ever certain or written in stone."

Haruka turned around and her mind went blank. How had she found her? The flaxen hair was a darker shade, she had washed it and put it up into plaits that framed her face angelically. Her gown was of brilliant red linen which seemed to flow with her as she walked. She stopped gracefully before Haruka and stood even with her, patiently awaiting an answer. Haruka could think of nothing appropriate to say, but then again her strength had never been with words nor with social tact for that matter.

"All of the wounded have been tended to?" Haruka said the first thing that came into mind, mentally cursing herself as soon as the words had left her mouth. That must have sounded horribly blunt and rude. Had Haruka been Ancalime in that moment, she would have slapped herself.

Ancalime only smiled kindly showing no sign that she felt offense at the brash words or uneven approach. "Yes, as far as I can determine anyway. The horribly injured are in surgery still. I tended most to those in recovery this morning. It appears many of the nobles are going to make it, but many of the stewards and soldiers who were ambushed at the entrance are in a bad way. I do not know how much can be done…all our doctors can do is try."

Haruka nodded solemnly. It had seemed that this place was a healthy retreat from the present horrors of their world, but it was not enough. It would never be enough.

On impulse, Haruka stepped forward and reached out to grasp one of Ancalime's hands. "And how are you faring in the middle of all of this?"

"I am fine." She put forth with a confident smile.

Haruka's golden eyebrows shifted and her teal eyes narrowed, recognizing the falseness in all of it. "You lie."

Ancalime sighed as her smile fell completely to form a tired frown. It was true, she was not alright. The sun bathed her in light from behind as Ancalime turned her face away from Haruka's concerned gaze. It had been too much. All of the dead, their cold and blank faces staring up into her own and dying screaming in agony when the herbs did not work or mumbling and flailing incoherently when they did. It had been too much.

"Ancalime." Haruka reached up and turned the other's face so that their eyes met one another. "What happened?"

Ancalime swallowed and for a moment Haruka was sure that the fear in her eyes at the memories had overtaken her and that she would not talk about it, but the subtle courage in Haruka's eyes steadied her, willed her to speak. That simple courage was her inspiration, her rock in this dismal storm, and Ancalime would never tire of it.

"I saw…dreadful things." She admitted shakily and Haruka reached out to grasp her waist because she appeared as though she was about to topple over. The fabric there was so soft and like the body beneath it, Haruka was loath to believe that it was made of this world. "Blood everywhere. Grown men screaming as we helped to pin their struggling limbs down so the surgeon could better examine their wounds. There were tourniquets to be set, injuries to be cleaned and dressed. I leaned over one man this morning who had taken fever from his wounds in the night and tended to his fever while he mumbled on in delirium. He talked of his wife and his children then he began weeping as he realized that he was in pain and that he would probably never see them again. He cried for almost an hour until he died."

Ancalime paused and swallowed to replenish some moisture back in her suddenly dry throat and mouth.

"I tended to another whose foot had been sliced off. He was convinced that he could not live his life out as a cripple and told me that he wanted to die. He asked me to help him end his life and when I did nothing to help him he shouted to the doctors to kill him. I was told to leave him alone as were most of the doctors and nurses at least until the pain medicine began to work, but it did not. He shouted and cried and then he wept and sobbed for a means to an end. When I left this morning I could still hear him…screaming, crying for a way out."

Ancalime stopped and shuddered at the all too vivid memories. Haruka wanted to reassure her, but words were never good with her. The most efficient gauge of her feelings was almost always expressed through her actions. With the hand that had been on Ancalime's waist, Haruka reached up and caressed her cheek gently pulling the Plutonian princess out of her troubled thoughts and back into the world at hand.

"Great expectations are often asked of those so young as us, but I suspect that too much has been asked of you." Haruka spoke softly letting the understanding in her eyes say more than she ever could out loud. "You should get some rest, allow the tide to ebb away for now."

Ancalime shuddered again and looked away. "Would you, Haruka? Could you stumble away from all the cares and curses of this world only take leave to breath again? Fires in the countryside still burn, from the Vandals fledgling flight. They knew we did not have enough soldiers here to send out after them so they set fire to the farms and villages in their way as they fled."

Haruka turned away from her companion, taking solemn note of the white and red blossoms as their colors mixed as they were brought together by the breeze. "Despicable. Those heathens will pay for this."

Ancalime looked back at her. "Will you make them repent, Haruka? Will you make them renounce all that they have done wielding as your weapons vengeance and ruthlessness? Shall you repay them as they have paid you? No, you do not have the power, nor is it up to you to go after them."

Haruka spun around back towards her. "I am one of the Queen's chosen few! What am I to do? Sit here and watch as still more die?"

"What more can you do?" Ancalime challenged calmly. " I only speak the truth, Haruka, do not punish me for it. I know how it pains you to see people suffer or to even hear of their sufferings. You are a kindhearted person, Haruka, your strength lies therein that great heart of yours; but it is not ready. Lord Asclepiodotus told me that you have only just begun your training on Pluto and that it will not be completed for many more long years to come. One day you will be one of this universe's great guardians, but right now you are unprepared. It is natural to feel this way, I beg of you, Haruka, live and let live."

Haruka turned back to the dappled marble pillar and the delicate blossoms at her side, their fragile petals being weaned from the safety of the vines as they intertwined before being blown wearily away. "It is not fair."

"What is not?" Ancalime asked.

Haruka swallowed her own hurt feelings and pride in an effort to keep her voice as even as it had been. "That I cannot help."

Ancalime sighed knowingly. "Really, Haruka, you could not have changed anything had you gotten involved anyway. It would not have mattered either way. Just thank the gods that you survived."

"Thank the gods for cursing me, that's a laugh." Haruka scoffed bitterly.

"No." Ancalime reached out gently and turned Haruka's face so they were staring eye to eye. "For saving you. I have been praying silently to them all day and even in the months and years to come I will continue to thank them in my prayers for bringing you back to me."

Haruka did not know what to say to her. It had been such a stressful night and eventful morning that there was almost no more energy left in her. The ever present trappings of guilt and the twang of grief rang in her ears, the dismal melody weighing her down so that everything seemed to drain from her all at once. Where was her rock which helped her hold steady in the storm? Where was her siren to protect her from the gale?

"Hauruka." Ancalime soothed sincerely, a pleading look to her crystalline eyes. "Nations and governments are petty human attempts to control what they cannot, land and countries are dirt and water, money is metal, power is something we create ourselves, what could possibly be valuable outside of our own lives? All of those things are a part of life, made to supplement life, but they are not life, Haruka. They can be taken away and given without necessarily putting one's own existence at stake, but life itself, is the only item of real value here." Here she paused and reached one hand up to stroke Haruka's cheek gently and brought the other up to rest on Haruka's shoulder just above her heart. "Please, cherish the life I love. It is the only precious treasure worth anything in this world and I would hate to regret not living it to its full potential. Last days where regrets are all you have because you have figured out that you have missed so many opportunities are nothing to want or expect. Regrets are the shadows of life which echo everything we do and stalk our forms over time. We can do nothing, but shield against them. Do not allow them to rule you, Haruka. Do not give in so easily. You have much to live for, much to accomplish, much to be happy for."

Haruka closed her eyes willing the tears not to come. The curtains of despair were closing in on the stage around her and she was drowning, she was the hopeless little performer who could not pull her hands free of the knot in time, could not escape the water tank, the walls of cold and terrifying liquid suffocating her as the light waned and her lungs burned. Deep inside she screamed against the encroaching shadows, against the agonizing ache crushing her chest and the tortured heart fighting to beat beneath. Where was her savior, the stagehand with the ax to break the glass confines and set her free? Where was the light? Why was it leaving her? She felt the walls of her chest as they began to ache no back in reality, though she could not nearly tell the difference. It was just as miserable in both places.

Haruka felt as her shoulders began to shake and her throat tightened and her hands began to shake. Her body convulsed in anguish, though even now, she was trying desperately to hold back the onslaught, the rebuild the crumbling walls she had built around her heart to protect it this past year. But each stone faltered, each one cracked when stacked upon one another and the mortar was nothing more than mud which oozed as if from some puss filled wound and refused to dry. She screwed her eyes shut as hot tears rolled down her cheeks. It was hot out in the yard and the sun made a heroic effort to reach out to her with its warmth, but try as it might, none of its heat penetrated to her core as it shifted as shattered.

Ancalime reached out to her, brushed the wetness from her cheeks and tried to calm her. "Shhhhh, Haruka, it is alright. I am here."

Nothing was alright! What of Setsuna? Lying barely breathing and broken in a bed in a chamber somewhere high above them. Had she not taught and raised Haruka over the last year? Had she not taken her into her home with hardly any qualms? And last night had she not risked her life to save the child she had not bore, but raised just the same? Haruka shuddered as the dam broke and everything brimmed to overflow. Where was the fine gratitude, where was her sword in all of this? She should have done more, though it would have been unlikely that she would have survived it all, but better her than Setsuna who had suffered so much during her lifetime. She had been by Benay the Stablemaster of Setsuna's youth. Quite often after riding practice while he was tending to the horses, Benay would tell her stories of Setsuna as a girl and of the tragic happenings of her later life. Haruka had never told Setsuna about those stories, about what she had been told and she did not intend too. What good would it do? None, it would probably cause more harm than good in fact.

Setsuna did not deserve it, but did she? Haruka swallowed hard and sniffled. She was young. If she were to die now, she would never know what she was truly capable of or what kind of life she could have lived. Death was not a fair thing for either one of them, though one day it was bound to claim them both. Promised to immortality or no, Haruka would not suffer herself to live these moments over and over again for all eternity. She would die first. Though she honestly did not believe that to be the eventual case.

Haruka leaned forward as Ancalime enveloped her contentedly in her arms into a comfortable hug. Though the two did not know it yet, the bulk of their future relationship would be built upon the foundations of moments such as this. Moments of sorrow, understanding, and consoling. A pattern of being dashed upon the rocks and rescued again with the eventual advance and retreat of the waves. Ancalime was the rush of the waves and the safety they offered her. She was the cove and she clung to her as though she may be ripped away at any second's interval. She wanted this, needed this stability, this rock to hang on to when the world and everything else around her threatened to fall down in upon her head.

Haruka sniffled and pulled back to look at Ancalime. "Thank you for being here for me."

"It's alright." Ancalime soothed. "It gets very lonely here. It is not often that I see many children my age. I have enjoyed the company."

Haruka felt a streak of indignant pride rising in her chest. "I cannot say that I have not also enjoyed the company. Being that most of my training thus far has confined me to the safety of Athena Castle, I have not met many friends my age, save for one."

"Was she special to you?" Ancalime asked, treading the uneven ground carefully before she decided to take any more steps on the subject.

Haruka swallowed and looked at her. "How did you know my friend was a girl?"

Ancalime shrugged her shoulders. "A mere guess. Girls seem to take better to keeping other girls as friends, that is all. So, was she special to you?"

Haruka focused her attention away from her on a corner of the roof of the latter awning as it was enveloped and embellished in the sun's golden light. "She still is and always will be."

"Shall you ever see her again?" Ancalime asked reaching out and catching a falling scarlet petal in her palm before the breeze could snatch it up. Gently, she massaged the velveteen leaf between her fingers.

"I do not know." Haruka wondered openly. She reached out one hand to steady herself against a pillar. "I have no way of knowing what my future holds for sure, but I find myself praying every night that we meet again someday, in someway."

Ancalime held her hand out straight as if imparting a sugar cube to a worthy steed and allowed the petal to be swept away, a captive to the will of the unpredictable wind. "I believe you will see her again."

Haruka chuckled. "You have not even met her. You know nothing about her, how can you presume to know such a thing?"

Ancalime narrowed her eyes sternly, but thought better of it and only smiled, crossing her arms across her bodice. "You say I know nothing of her, but already I know one solid fact. She is held in high enough esteem by you to be called friend and that is enough evidence for me."

Ancalime held her hands before her, the stature of a dignified woman captive to the confines of young age. "Haruka of Estoduin, would you care to be my guest of honor at a private dinner tonight?"

Haruka did not much feel like residing in the continual company of people for the night, but she could not refuse this girl and anyway, it was impolite to refuse a request to appear as a another's quest, especially since she was in her debt for leading her out of oblivion when she was lost. And now still she was at a loss she could not explain and this girl, this angel whom had saved her before continued to leave her solace; continued to vie for her continual salvation.

Haruka cleared her throat and bowed slightly, "It would be my pleasure, Lady Ancalime of Lionath and I would be honored to attend as your guest for the evening."

To Haruka's surprise, Ancalime reached out and grasped Haruka's hand firmly in her own, giving it a reassuring squeeze along with a genuinely happy smile. "Thank you. You do not know how much it means to me."

"Of course," Haruka swallowed. It was not common for a Lady of equal standing to bow to another, it was not even proper, but for some reason; Haruka did not mind. She took a deep breath and let it put her muscles and senses at ease. "I look forward to the evening then."

"I'll send someone for you when the time comes."

"I'll be waiting."

Ancalime's smile matched Haruka's in every respect. Then she walked off, pausing every few steps to look back at Haruka, grinning hopelessly until she finally disappeared through the opening in the side wall behind a wall of vines. Haruka sighed as she contemplated the choice she had just made. The sun overhead was a beautiful proclamation of the late morning's splendor against the contrast of the clouds blocking the atmosphere. She wasn't alone anymore. As she stood in the Gazebo, letting the ever faithful wind brush her sandy locks back away from her face and into the open air, she could finally succumb to inner peace.

Haruka felt the burden of the world ease off from her shoulders, if only for a second. The tightness in her chest subsided and for a moment she closed her eyes and allowed herself to forget all that had happened to her in the last twenty four hours: forgot the bloodshed from the previous night, neglected the fear and the regret which had trapped her spirit in unbreakable confines for the last few hours and let the walls she had placed around her heart drop. All she did was feel, as the wind soothed her bruised skin and put at ease her weary soul. The last thought washed over her as sure as the firm pressure of the breeze against her body: she wasn't alone in the world anymore. Another person shared her pain, her contempt for this violent history human beings were intent on living and reliving over and over again without fail.

Ancalime was her rock, her support in the constant storm which seemed to nip at her heels with no regard as to her wish for a peaceful life. Haruka knew her place in life now and she would not miss the chance to go on living. Teal eyes darted back to where Ancalime had stood only seconds before and one hand reached up to her collar to where the silver necklace with the aquamarine stone was hiding. A slight frown overtook her features as she rubbed the blue stone with her thumb, but then the shadow lifted and the notion of hope again came back to her. There was no reason she could not have two friends, leastways one who would be her rock in the storm to come.

As the rays of the sun created gold illusions against the alabaster pillars, the full body of the sun peeking regally over the height of the wall to flood the gazebo with light, filtered down to warm her face Haruka found herself thinking just how small limbo was and how beautiful the heavens must be.

_Another chance_, Haruka thought, _until the night_.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_This was originally a part of a much larger chapter addition, but since it would take a long time to finish and an even uglier span of time to post, I decided it far to break it off as its own separate entity from what will become chapter eight. It's relatively short and does not show much of the training of either child, but I beg of you all please be patient, the dawn is coming. Read and tell me what you thought of it!! Thank you and Enjoy!!


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